Courtship of the Grad Student
by Seigetsu Ren
Summary: Legend says an undergrad research assistantship can be heaven or hell depending on the grad student you work for. Anna is about to find out, that is, if she first manages to talk to Elsa without the aid of the lab printer. (Elsanna, modern academic laboratory AU)
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is a fun little slice-of-life Elsanna AU I'm writing that is set in a modern academic laboratory. For those of you who have read my ShizNat fanfic, _Fujino Lab_, the parody is somewhat similar, but the tone will be quite different. There will only be a couple little plot twists, while most of it is just as the title says:

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

so it'll be full of meaningless fluff and poking fun at my occupation. I do not own_ Frozen_, obviously. That said, please enjoy, and if you have time, I'd really appreciate any reviews you could leave behind.

(This is the April 2015 edited version)

* * *

Chapter 1

Undergrad research assistantships were notoriously difficult to find at the University of Arendelle, with entire lab buildings near emptied due to a deep cut in the national budget for the sciences. One would think the industry would then be more lenient in their demands for previous work experience, but the skyrocketing unemployment rate of fresh grad science majors spoke otherwise.

Taking the advice of her older friends, Anna Summers decided to hunt for a RAship despite the difficulties. She was never the type to back down, even if it meant mass emailing every faculty member of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, including Dr. Winters, whose grey hair and pale, lifeless-looking face accentuated the connotation of his surname. It was almost impossible writing an enthusiastic cover letter with his photo on her desktop, but she was Anna Summers, personality warm enough to melt the Arctic even without the help of methane and CO2.

Perhaps it was due to her enthusiasm, but more likely just to stop her from spamming his inbox, Dr. Winters finally replied a month later with a single "OK" and a CC to elsa dot snow at uarendelle dot edu

So what did that mean?

Ten more emails down the drain asking when she should start, Anna decided the best way to tackle unresponsive profs was to storm their offices. Unfortunately for her, she was met by a locked door with a piece of paper taped on it saying, "On sabbatical till June 6". Great, that would be past her graduation!

Printing out the two-lettered reply from Dr. Winters, Anna went up to the reception to try and convince the building manager that even if Dr. Winters were on sabattical, she could still talk to the mysterious person on the CC line, who judging from the matching name on the lab website, was his grad student.

"Elsa Snow?" the lady replied incredulously. What, was the lab website a decade-old and this Elsa person had long graduated? Couldn't be. Grad students were permanent fixtures to the ceilings, they _never_ graduated.

"I thought she's a _grad_ student at the Winters Lab," Anna emphasized her thoughts. The lady nodded knowingly.

"Well, yeah, if you mean to say she must still be around. But you said you wanted to _talk_ to her?"

Okay, now she could see the problem. In the field of science, the techs were usually the normal ones. The others? Well, let's just say they had a bit more _personality_. I mean, you had to have personality to torture yourself with another life's worth of education. Alright, Anna admitted that she was exaggerating the timeline for most PhD theses here, but nonetheless no understatement about torture.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Ma'am! You know me, well you don't know me but you know me enough by now to know that I can rant on forever, so I think I can deal with it even if my grad student were a little socially-challenged...I meant 'distant' of course, distant, not in a bad way."

The lady quirked a finely-trimmed eyebrow at her. She plastered her best grin in response.

"Umm...so may I have a key card to the labs? I swear I'm not here to free the mice."

After another long, skeptical look at her redhead all the way down to her toes, the lady held out her hand, "Driver's License please."

She fished the license out of her wallet and gave it to the lady who put a key card in her palm in return, "I will call the police if you free the mice." And when she saw the Ginger's sheepish smile, she added, "For your sake, because a horde of mad scientists would be out for your blood."

"Yeah, I think I get it, you know, the thing with mad scientists, since I'm a science major myself," Anna said while retreating, stubbing her toe on a chair on the way out. With a loud "Ow!" and face red as a tomato, she stumbled her way down the stairs to the scanner that welcomed her new card with a beep and let her into the restricted area.

The Winters Lab lay on a deserted corridor across the cold room. First things she saw and heard the moment she pushed open the door were freezers, making a neat line across the left of the room, and benches cuddled close to them.

Oddly fitting, really, considering the surname of the PI.

"Hi," a plump middle-aged woman with dark hair held behind a forest-green knitted cap stepped up to Anna, "Are you looking for somebody?"

"Oh, I'm Anna, pleased to meet you!" she held out her hand only to be met with a polite smile and a light shake of the woman's head that referred to the gloves she was wearing, "Oh, sorry! I didn't realize you were wearing gloves. I mean, of course you would be wearing gloves, nothing wrong with that, I'm...just...what am I saying? I'm the dumb new undergrad reporting here for the first time. See? Dr. Winters said OK, literally."

She held out the printed email to the woman who nodded. "Oh, I see. Well, let me just finish loading this little mini-gel here and I'll get you settled down, seeing as you will be working with us for the rest of the year," she said, turning back to her experient while she continued with a smile, "I'm Gerda by the way, the lab manager, so if you need anything, feel free to come to me for assistance. Across from us is Kai, the post-doc, then on the next bay is Hans, our Masters student, and his undergrad, Kristoff. He's in fourth year. Which year are you in, Anna?"

"Same!" she beamed, though clearly not at the other undergrad. Her eyes skipped past Kai's half-bald head for the slickly-gelled auburns of the grad student behind him. His gaze was a bright green so electric that they practically shocked her heart to a momentary stop, not to mention that beautiful smile he was now wearing for her. Oh God, he was smiling at her! She could faint happily and wake up in heaven now.

Until his undergrad, Christopher was it, gave her his most demeaning stare with those dark marble eyes of his.

"Umm...Hi, Christopher?" she tried to sound nice. He only growled at her in return.

"It's Kristoff."

She wasn't in the best of moods either, crossing her arms and growling back. Only when Hans tugged Kristoff back and told him to "be nice" did their unfriendly staring contest end.

"Well, that was a nice introduction!" Gerda said as though nothing happened, the beautiful curvature of her lips still held upright. Wow, she was impressive. Just when Anna thought her own smile was already plastered...

"I'm terribly sorry for...for everything. And you were, I mean you still are, so nice, Gerda. It just..."

"Don't worry about it, Anna dear. Labs are more fun this way. So, should we find you a spot for your backpack?"

Gerda took off her gloves and led Anna to the right-side of the room where the temperature seemed to drop close to freezing. It was then that she realized why everybody crowded around the freezers on the opposite side - not because of the non-stop whining sounds they made, but because of the heat they gave off in an attempt to cool the insides. Seeing as things were probably going to start frosting over on this side though, Anna wondered if it would be more environmentally-friendly to just leave reagents on the benches here.

They came to a bay with one side occupied, the other side empty. By occupied, it meant that the desk and bench were occupied by inanimate, not living things, unless the streaked bacterial plates counted as such. Everything was pristinely clean, devoid of even a single speck of dust, and coloured lab tape crisscrossed atop the bench, drawing out complex bounds for every single object to be placed within. The arrangement reminded Anna of a spider web, but on second thought, the intricate art could use a prettier simile - snowflake, it was like a snowflake.

Except it was a rather threatening snowflake considering the tip boxes were taped together into a gigantic block with a big post-it on top reading, "Do NOT use and leave the empty boxes for me to stack. There are autoclaved tips in the drawer by the front entrance, walk there!" Similar post-its guarded easy access to the micropipettes on the spin rack, and an especially obnoxious-looking monster was drawn on a LB bottle, with a warning beside it saying, "The abominable snowman will kick you out the lab shall you dare sully this medium!"

By now, Anna had an idea who was the owner of this bench. Gerda nodded as though reading her thoughts, gesturing to the adjacent desk for her to sit at.

"Here's a seat for you. I'd suggest triple-lab-coating if it gets too cold. Unfortunately, the building's heating system is a little malfunctional on this side; at least this seat isn't under the air vent like Elsa's. And seeing as you will be working with her, I'll show you where she is now."

Oh great, finally time to go see her direct supervisor who was known throughout a building of weirdos as _the weirdo_. Let's hope their first meeting wouldn't end with her on the receiving end of a chucked centrifuge rotor.

In the end, it seemed her worries were unfounded.

Gerda showed her to a room at the end of the hall that had a sign saying "Tissue culture", under which a post-it added, "Flow cytometry", on top of which was an additional piece of tape reading, "Fluorescence imaging". Okay, so multi-purpose dark room it was then. Actually, the big fat piece of construction paper on the locked door was probably a more accurate description, "The Snow Queen's Domain."

"Elsa?" Gerda called when she knocked on the door, "Your new undergrad, Anna, has arrived."

Dot. Dot. Dot.

No response.

"Umm...Hi, I'm Anna. Nice to meet you," she tried to break the silence, but it remained, hanging stiffly to the air. Turning to face the lab manager, she whispered, "Are you sure she is in? Maybe she's on a washroom break..."

"I am rather certain she doesn't drink water while we're around, so no, she won't be at the washroom. And she does come in everyday. Look, the microscope is acquiring."

Anna curiously peeked at the narrow bottom slit between the door and ground that was filled completely with black until a flash of blue nearly made her heart jump to her throat, "Oh! That was not an explosion. That was the...ugh...microscope!?"

"The fluorescent scope on the green channel, yes. Pretty bright flash, isn't it? The Texas Red channel is an even more blinding lime green. In contrast, the DAPI channel is quite a subdued royal blue."

"Err...fascinating..." Anna came to the realization that she wasn't quite cut out as a nerd, yet. Interest aside, she did say she wouldn't give up on this opportunity so easily, so she grasped onto it and spoke through the door again, "Umm, Elsa? The microscope...it sounds really cool! Mind if I come in and watch?"

More silence, followed by a couple clicking sounds within the room, and then heavy silence once again.

When the screech of their lab printer sounded, Anna jumped, noticing she had been leaning on it all this time. It sat conveniently on a table beside the doorway so she had a good view of the freshly printed paper it spat out. On its second page, the printer hiccuped, and Gerda smashed its ancient massive body with two solid thuds to bring it back to working condition.

"Meet Olaf, the lab printer. It likes warm hugs."

If by hugging, Gerda meant smacking, Anna could definitely use a lesson on euphemism from her.

"Seems like Elsa wants you to take the safety courses first," Gerda continued, handing her the stack of paper that detailed the registration process, "Are you up for it?"

"Of course," she answered, though she was facing the door directly, "I look forward to working with the microscope after this is done!"

Anna decided that this was going to be one heck of a difficult research assistantship...

...but secretly her interest in the untouchable Snow Queen had piqued.

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks Kildren, redmustache, gagins, and the guest for your kind comments. Hope you'll all continue to enjoy reading, and if you have the time, feedback is very welcome. Thanks again!

(This is the April 2015 edited version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 2

"Another one!?"

Ever since she finished her safety courses and slipped a copy of her certificates under the dark room door, Anna had been receiving these small bottles of mystery liquid on her bench every day.

What happened to the safety rule of "labelling all aliquots of lab chemicals"? Well...she supposed they weren't really chemicals by common definition, considering they were just plain saline.

The first time she received one, she asked Gerda about it, but the manager mentioned she left the lab locked and only its members had keys. When everybody else denied pulling a prank on her, even Kristoff who just looked at her like she were crazy to even ask, she surmised these bottles could only be from one sender - her vice-boss, Elsa.

"Maybe this is a test of some sort?" the kind, charming Hans had said in a most calming tone that made her fall in love instantaneously, not that she hadn't already, "Have more confidence. You can figure this one out! I'll be right here if you need help."

Oh, how she wanted to hug him and kiss him deeply right then and there! She only managed to restrain due to her burning curiosity for Elsa's "challenge". At first she wanted to boil off the liquid on a hot plate and see what was left, but taking advice from Kristoff who plainly commented with a quirked eyebrow, "What if this were flammable and you set the whole place on fire?", she decided to evaporate it off inside the fume hood, setting it under a stream of gently-pressurized air to speed the process.

Luckily, the volume just barely covered the bottom, so by the next day she came in, she found a white film of crystals caking the glass that smelt distinctly of table salt.

"It's saline!" she had called to the locked dark room door. Once again, no answer, "Oh come on, Elsa. You can't be angry because your challenge was too easy!"

When met with yet no response, she turned, about to sulk away and ask Hans if she could work with him instead, but the moment she did so, the door cracked open and out came the cling of glass rolling across linoleum floor.

That was her second mystery bottle, which Anna found out the next day, was_ still_ saline!

"How many of these are you going to give me?" she said flatly to the door, the evaporated second bottle of saline in her left hand, and a fresh third bottle of presumably more saline in her right.

Still no response.

And this time when she turned, the door cracked open and something smacked the back of her head.

"Ow! Why are you throwing things at me?"

It was a pen.

Hmm...oh! Write down her observations, maybe?

"I saw a white powder at the bottom of the container," Anna wrote, passing it under the door. Nope! More saline hurled at her feet when she wasn't looking.

"I air-dried the solution and found white powder at the bottom of the container," second try, still unsuccessful.

"0.5ml of the solution was placed under compressed air for 15 hours to evaporate the liquid and the white powder remaining in the container after the procedure was weighed on an analytical balance. The weight of the powder, which had the quality of smell of table salt, was determined to be 4.5mg," third try, and she already asked Kai, the post-doc, for help!

"Elsa, are you a super-perfectionist or do you just hate me?" she shouted through the piece of wood, a little angry but even more intrigued. Every time she faced this door, she became more determined to break it down, not physically, but mentally - she would make Elsa acknowledge her. Yeah, she'd show the Snow Queen what she had got!

She designed a brand new experiment, streaking the saline on a LB plate and incubated it in the 37⁰C. When nothing turned up the next day, she added a sentence describing this on her report, "...this supports the hypothesis that this liquid is a 0.9%w/v sterile saline solution."

Still more saline on her bench. Gosh! Just how many of these did her supervisor have? She was so darn tempted to slam down that door, else she'd probably start pulling all her own hair out! Finally calming down, she sought Kai's help again, asking him if Elsa was looking for an outright HPLC, or heck, a mass spec!? He chuckled lightly, patting her shoulder, "I think she's not looking for that. She's just unhappy about the LB plate experiment."

"Really? But...that was my most brilliant idea!" She whined. Kai nodded his bald head lightly.

"It is brilliant, which is why you are officially Elsa's longest-lasting undergrad thus far. But try thinking in the context of what we do here..."

Looking for some amazing little critter in chunks of Arctic ice that was somehow supposed to infer the origin of the human immune system? Anna must admit Dr. Winters was likely one very badass scientist to spin that into a non-sci-fi-sounding proposal that wouldn't get the automatic reject from granting agencies.

Judging by the inappropriateness of her mental statements, Anna went with a more conservative choice, "Err...environmental genomics?"

"You mean wasting grant money on expensive tests done on Arctic ice?"

Anna's eyes went wide with surprise and a hint of unstoppable admiration for the post-doc's guts. Kai only laughed at her again.

"Oh Anna, you would think working in the field for a good thirty years would teach you what an undergrad thought of your project. But you are right, it's just ice, so why run expensive tests when you can streak it onto a plate and watch things grow?"

It took her a while, but the mental light bulb lighted up. Genomics! Yes, genomics! Because what were the chances of something that naturally grew on Arctic ice being happy on a plate at 37⁰C? It was like sending Santa to the equator! But even if they couldn't grow, they were still there, so their genes must be there. That was why! That was why their lab even existed!

Genius, Anna, totally genius...you just found out why your PI could still afford your grad student's stipend...what a wonderful discovery!

As such, Anna slipped a DNA extraction protocol under Elsa's door and asked, "Hey, I want to do this. Gerda said you might have the reagents...so, mind giving them to me, or if you don't have any extra, can I place an order?"

Olaf sounded again, and for the first time, the printed line was not something from a website, but Elsa's original, "Come back tomorrow. Things will be ready for you."

"You're saying I deserve a break? Seriously?"

Though, as she expected, no verbal response came, a proud warmth started gathering inside, making her subconsciously grin. It was strange, because she didn't even remember saying goodbye to everyone on her way out the lab, just waltzing through singing to herself, "For the first time in forever, for the first time in forever...nothing's in my way!"

No wonder right after singing that last word she slammed into a cart of plants from the botany lab down the hall.

* * *

Since this first real interaction with her grad student, Anna had been strictly communicating with her through science. Each day an icebox full of materials would be set neatly on her bench before she arrived, and she would start working through them till she obtained the results she was looking for, which she would then write up and slip under the dark room door. Sometimes these write-ups would be pushed back to her side within minutes, making her feel as though her childhood sweetheart just chose the bitchiest girl in town over her. But other times they would be accepted, and like a pleading girlfriend, she would beg for this and that for the next experiment.

Like the week before when she whined through the door, "Please, I really want this probe. The guy at the product show, who shoved a dozen chocolates in my face by the way, you should totally have been there, so where was I? Right, the guy at the product show said they made these probes with a super-safe dye instead of radioactive labels. I mean, it'll save me from cancer! Can you believe it, Elsa? Yeah...so what was my point? Please get me the probe, I promise I'll get a perfect blot with it...Hans said he would help, so pretty please?"

After three minutes of deafening silence in which Anna tried glaring through the wood with her watery gaze, Olaf finally choked out a piece of paper - confirmation of the probe order.

And then she started literally dreaming of the probe every night. Gosh, would she become Kary Mullis at this rate? Hey, she wouldn't mind a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

But maybe, just maybe even more than that, she wanted Elsa to open the door.

Of course, her conscious thought would never recognize that, so when the probe did come in, she jumped up and down thinking she was delighted because she could now do a Southern blot with Hans.

"Southern is such a beautiful name," she said while transferring the gel over to the filter paper, completely oblivious of the way Hans held her hand to make sure she didn't break the gel. Only when she realized what she said did she start blushing madly, "I...I mean...Southern as in Southern blot, not your last name...but of course your last name is beautiful too, it's all summery and warm and...oh my God, did I just say summer?"

"I do think they match, Summers and Southern, there's even alliteration."

Holy crap, did Hans just say that? Summers and Southern? She could almost picture her business card as Anna Summers-Southern now, and it made her head fume in embarrassment.

She just blurted out the first distraction she could think of, "Oh, and did you know there is a northern blot too? And a western blot? What am I talking about, of course you know, you're the grad student here. A-ha-ha...biologists sense of humour, right? Bet you didn't know this one: which CD has to have Rap?"

His bright, handsome limes stared deeply into her teals, "Actually, I know this. CD36, right?"

"Oh my God, you knew?"

"We think alike, don't we? I searched up that paper just to learn the nerdy biologist joke, too bad nobody gets it and it isn't even funny anymore when you have to explain that CD36 is a cell surface marker important in fatty acid transport, and that it may be down-regulated when signal transduction protein Rap1 is deficient."

And she once thought she was crazy talking to beautiful microscope pictures on the halls, like that one with the poor little erythrocyte about to get engulfed by a giant macrophage. She'd be unable to resist pointing at the false-red cell, muttering, "Hang in there, RBC!"

When she told her story, Hans just laughed, "Hey, I _love_ crazy!"

At that moment, she immediately thought: soulmate.

"I'm thinking of something crazier," Hans continued, and this resonance came deep within her as she replied.

"I think I know what is this crazier thing."

"Well, would you say yes then? Dinner. My treat."

"Umm...yeah, after I finish up."

A date! A date! There was that one more experiment she wanted to do before she left, but should she just say "to heck with it" and go home, grab a nice dress before meeting up with Hans? As though reading her, he just smiled.

"No pressure, Anna. I think I'll drop off my stuff at my apartment first. Here is my number - give me a call when you're done so I can pick you up."

And with a wave, he was gone, his number written on her glove.

Oh, how she wished she wasn't wearing one and his pen strokes would remain on her bare hand for days...

By now, she was leaning towards abandoning the last experiment, but just when she was dumping out the ice at the sink, something caught her eye.

A thin thread of white gold, lying in chunks of the melting translucent cubes.

She picked it out and stared at it, turning it over and over between her fingers so the slight curl rotated like a propeller blade. It blurred into the background, circular streaks shining under the light.

_Elsa is blonde? _

Was it simple curiosity, or something more? She didn't know, but the moment a million images of her imagined Elsa flashed through her mind, she found herself unable to leave.

She would break that door.

No matter what, she would break it one day.

Refilling her icebox, she grabbed the next set of reagents and started to work.

* * *

Lab work could be excruciatingly repetitive, results never consistent, always failing on the darned n=3 to leave you with a p value just sitting above 0.05.

But after going at it for long enough, you would get gut feelings that this one last trial would work, and adrenaline would pump through your veins as you performed it, knowing it would lead to the prettiest figure on your manuscript.

And when doing just that, you would completely forget the time. It could be two in the morning and you'd think the sky was awake, so you were awake.

That was what was happening to Anna. She would later bang her head on the wall once she realized what she had forgotten, but at the moment, she could just think of the beauty of what she was seeing, and the smile she _knew_ would light up Elsa's face when she saw this.

_She would understand._

_And she would love it._

On her way to the dark room, heart pounding and paper with the latest results shaking in her hand, it all shattered.

A shrill alarm sounded urgently, chasing her heart beat, warning her to leave as an emergency had occurred.

Everything thrown out her mind, she pounded on the dark room door.

"Elsa? Elsa can you hear me? There's an alarm. I don't know what is it but you have to come out!"

No response. A horribly sick feeling set in her stomach as she imagined this room engulfed by flames, the silhouette of an unknown figure trapped within, blonde cascades charred to ashes. It made her cry, made her voice harsh as she shouted more frantically with heavier thuds against the wood, "Elsa, answer me! I don't know why you always shut me out but I've had enough of it - I'm not leaving without you! If you don't come out, I'll kick this door flying into the microscope, you hear me!?"

It was the first time she heard the weak, pleading voice in the darkness.

"Please. Leave without me."

"What the hell is wrong with you? If there's a fire coming, you're gonna die! How do you suppose I can live on knowing I just left you here to burn to your death, you Idiot!?"

"Then just go away!"

The clear voice now thick with emotions screamed. Anna was caught in shock as the girl within the walls finally broke the silence with a gentler tone, "Please. If you go ahead, I promise I'll make it to safety too."

"Alright. Fine. But you have to come out after I leave."

It was the worst. Each step away from the lab was the worst feeling ever.

And the girl still remaining within felt all of it.

That was why she hated people. She hated feeling. She didn't want to feel, because when she did, it would all come back to her.

Elsa bit her lip, chiding herself for why she couldn't just scream at Anna for being the real idiot earlier. Once she heard the steps fade, she finally stepped out into the empty lab, made her way to the fume hood, and shut the sash.

The alarm stopped.

It was that simple. Only undergrads would freak out from an airflow alarm - everyone else had heard it enough times to know it was no emergency.

But when the onslaught of Anna's concern ripped through her senses, Elsa couldn't get herself to say such a simple truth. Why, after all the frustration and disappointment she kept inflicting, the undergrad could still retain such _hope_ that they would one day connect with each other?

It was ridiculous. She didn't get it. She could feel people but she could never understand them, even more so Anna.

Her hand shook as it remained on the sash, icy blues narrowed to slits while she fought back tears from the secret nobody could comprehend.

That was the first time Anna ever saw her grad student, when her worry overwhelmed her, prompting her to return to the lab to observe this scene.

It left her entirely puzzled, but more so than she could ever imagine...

...she wanted to eventually stand by her side.

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Thanks ZoeNightshade2214, Kildren, blind-saint, redmustache, Peace Sign Freak and the guests for your kind comments. Yes, last chapter revealed that Elsa can feel other's emotions. This will be expanded upon in later chapters. Thanks for reading and if you have time, any feedback you leave behind would be greatly appreciated.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 3

Anna faced the dark room door, yesterday's results in hand. She knocked.

"Umm...Elsa? About yesterday..."

No answer, not that she expected one.

Her memory replayed itself, the figure in the dark, hair blonde as she had imagined, but even paler, cascading down a long, slim nape to a small back bent over the fume hood sash. She saw the hand clutch metal, making the attached glass plane shudder like a blown leaf. Under the fluorescence, the woman she was watching was white, the background black; she shone, but in a subdued way, the snowy pinnacle of a mountain mankind had never set foot on, with frail beauty seemingly so fragile it was untouchable.

Anna was captured, but she dared not step forward.

Whatever raged a tempest in those clearest blues barely peeking out drawn lashes was out of her reach. She wanted to know, wanted to help, but a certain desolation kept her away.

So she left.

But like she always told herself, Anna Summers_ never_ backed away.

She just needed a plan. First, she needed to get more personal with her supervisor...like speaking to her, or rather, speaking to her properly.

But the silent treatment had returned. She supposed yesterday was just a lucky coincidence.

Okay, maybe she had to start with professional communication first. Personal could come after that.

"So...ugh...yesterday the experiment went great! Beautiful! Like, nothing as clean as this! Remember I told you I was transforming _E. coli_ with fragments of the DNA I isolated? The activity screen showed a good number of hits. Totally cool! And the blot for confirming the copy number of the last sample's top hit came back with the prettiest bands ever."

Still no response.

Unlike before, Anna couldn't stop thinking, "Why?"

"Am I rambling on too much?"

"Of course I am. What the hell, I could've just shown you the results, right?"

She slipped the paper halfway under the door, watching it, waiting for their only interaction to occur.

But it didn't. It remained there, half-in, half-out.

"Anna?" A gentle voice called from behind, snapping her attention away. She turned to find Hans standing there, watching her crouched form with a smile. He offered a large hand to help her stand.

"Hans," she said, finally remembering the other thing that happened yesterday, "I'm...I'm really sorry for not calling you last night. The experiment just went on longer than I'd expected, and I totally didn't notice the time, so by the end of it, it was already too late and I was afraid I would wake you up, so...I'm really, really sorry, I swear."

"Hey, hey," he interrupted her, "I get it. I totally get it. No worries, apology accepted."

"Thank you," she replied, "Thanks a lot. I...I really appreciate your kindness. I mean, kindness isn't something you can take for granted, you know?"

She didn't know what she was saying, even she herself found those words bitter. But she couldn't refrain from taking just one last look at the paper under the door, still there, unaccepted. If Elsa didn't want anything to do with her, why couldn't she just shove the page all the way out again, reject her once and for all!?

"You mean Elsa?" Hans broke through her thoughts. She gasped. He just patted her shoulder comfortingly, "Sorry for intruding, but you know, I got the idea that we think alike, so I thought maybe that was what was troubling you, and I wanted to help."

She accepted the small warmth from their contact, lingering under his touch, "Am I just...that useless? I don't think it's me, you know...Elsa being distant and all, but I still can't stop wondering maybe, maybe if I try a little harder or something, she would open up."

"I'm sure she would, just not now. As for you, you've tried hard enough. You know, we all want Elsa to open up, but at the same time, we also want you to feel welcomed here. We appreciate the things you did, no matter if it's your work or reaching out to Elsa. You are great, Anna. Don't ever think you are anything less."

Hans always had that infectious personality, his compassion, his encouraging outlook on the bleakest situations. A small part of Anna could probably guess Hans and she were not so alike, but he had the ability and the wish to connect despite it all. He made himself seem like her so his empathy could reach her. That was the attractiveness of his kindness, it was what made her fall deeper in love.

If only Elsa could be a little more like him.

"Oh, Hans, Anna, are you two looking for Elsa?" someone questioned. It was Gerda, who happened to have walked by and saw them both standing in front of the dark room.

"Is she not around?" Hans caught the undertone of the older woman's statement.

She nodded, "She sent me an email saying she would be down at the animal facility doing mouse experiments today; she even asked me to help Anna out if she needed anything."

Anna didn't know how she felt about this. If she must explain, it felt like her intestines were tied in a jumble of knots, relieved that Elsa still remembered her, but anxious that the latter didn't even want to face her anymore. What did she do wrong? Well, she was idiotic to think an airflow alarm would kill them both and had even threatened to break the 250k fluorescent scope, but even the most socially-inept shut-in could tell she was just trying to care...right?

"Anna, an animal experiment is a good sign nine times out of ten. You'd think the ethics committee wouldn't approve just any poorly-designed procedure, and PIs don't dump grant money into feeding mice unless it sounds like a feasible manuscript endpoint. Elsa is probably close to writing, and maybe you'll even get a second authorship, who knows?"

She tried to return Hans' grin, but truth be told, she could care less about an authorship. Sure, that was probably the reason she tried to work here to begin with, but somewhere down the line, the purpose had shifted. She was really starting to like what she did, and it seemed only Elsa could understand.

"You said you wanted to learn how to use the microscope?" Hans continued, "I can show you now that the room isn't locked."

She glanced at the door again, the solid barrier that separated her from the mysteries behind it. She shook her head lightly.

"Nah, how about you show me what you're working on? I've been curious for a while already."

"Sure thing! And we can discuss your project too if you like. This time I'm taking you out for lunch."

"Sounds great!"

She turned and walked away, leaving the dark room shut as it was.

It wouldn't be the same if the blonde girl wasn't the one to invite her in.

* * *

It was a good week before Elsa finished her animal experiments and returned to sulking in her dark room in the lab.

Her terror from that night the airflow alarm sounded still hadn't eased.

It was not the first time she ran away from the lab. Of course, she didn't just do animal experiments because she wanted to run away - she had all the protocols pre-approved - she just chose to work on them whenever she couldn't stand the company of another human being within a ten meters radius, even if there were a door blocking any direct contact.

Watching mice dying by her hands was bad, but they were better than humans - at least she gave them anaesthesia and they rested on heating pads; they just sunk into a dream from which they would never wake up. She hoped they didn't suffer. Right, she could cling onto that hope. Humans, on the other hand, gave her no benefit of doubt.

Humans were so downright ugly. Greed and lust and unreasonable jealousy when those were not met. Anger and frustration and even hate when others thwarted their malicious plans. It was all sickening.

But she could stand all that. Ugly, yes, but she could ignore them, bring in her narcissistic side and claim she was at least better.

What she couldn't stand was love.

Because nothing was forever, so when love moved onto pain and suffering and devastation, but it still remained, clinging onto the background in desperately thin threads, she would be torn.

She didn't want to be torn again. More so, she didn't want to feel a loved one be torn inside out again.

For this, she avoided people. She'd rather freeze in isolation - at least she was free.

She recalled her undergrad career, spent almost entirely at home studying aside from taking the mandatory exams on campus. The first year lab courses were horrifying, but she managed to come in last minute so she would be working alone in an unoccupied corner, then finishing up as quickly as possible to leave in an hour while the rest of the students were still toiling away on an experiment scheduled for three.

It was third year when she entered the Winters Lab. Her exact request was that she borrowed a quiet lab space for completing her mandatory lab requirements for her degree. It was a rare request, but granted nonetheless by her Dean only because she was the top student by far her faculty had ever seen. He saw her potential as a researcher, and perhaps he also saw Brad Winters as the only PI who could realize this potential.

Brad Winters could probably use a nickname of Bland Winters - he was bland as the Arctic ice he studied. Cold, yet oddly majestic in his calm, Elsa finally found solace in working for him.

He gave her everything she needed for research, the reagents, the equipment, and most importantly the quiet space she needed. He was a jaded full professor after all, built up a reputation that would allow his survival even in the economic downturn - he neither cared nor completely ignored Elsa's work, he was just there as an ATM and signature-provider. When she published her first paper in PNAS as a fourth-year, he left a bottle of champagne outside her door. That was all.

But even the champagne made her uncomfortable. Touching the slightly moist bottle neck where his palm must've left a very thin sheen of sweat, she collapsed.

The completely platonic pride of a mentor for his student's achievements - even that was enough to scare her. What if she failed to continue meeting his expectations? What would his disappointment feel like?

That was the first time she ran away. A day later, Brad sent her an email saying he'd be away for a conference in Hawaii. She returned to the lab, guilt-ridden, because she knew there wasn't even a related conference in Hawaii for that entire month.

Elsa was glad when Hans Southern joined the lab. The charismatic Master's student actively sought Brad's attention. But Brad, jaded as he was, easily saw through Hans' true worth as a grad student - as a leader. He brought in the hardworking but painfully simple Kristoff Bjorgman into the lab as Hans' undergrad, and that changed everything once again.

Kristoff was the first one who tried to befriend her. Not that she thought Kai and Gerda were unfriendly, but they probably saw from Brad's precedent it was better to leave the Snow Queen alone. Kristoff, on the other hand, was just too nice.

He was scared of her, sure she knew - she could feel his fear before he even stopped in front of her door. Who wouldn't be, after hearing myths of the lab hermit haunting the building? Despite this, night after night, he would leave a box of water and energy bars behind, perhaps worried she'd starve to death. When she left them there each time with a note saying "No eating or drinking in the lab", he stopped, but would still drop by in-person once in a while, leaving only when she flashed the bright Texas Red channel as a sign that she was still alive.

And just like Anna, the night he was working late, the airflow alarm sounded and he panicked, slamming Elsa's door.

"You've got to leave!" He shouted.

Why did he even have to care? From the snippets of conversation she caught once in a while from the others speaking outside, Kristoff was pretty much a loner, but to find comfort in befriending a door? Was he insane?

"It's the fume hood sash. Just close it!" She shouted back.

He did. The alarm stopped. And the next day, Elsa ran away.

When she came back, he never stopped by her door again.

If she had said the same thing to Anna, would all of this not happen? Would she not be so afraid?

But why hadn't she said the same thing, damn it!?

"Elsa?" the familiar voice sounded outside again, "Are you back?"

She nodded, not that Anna could see her. Her body moved without her consent, stepping towards the door, hand lifting up to trace the paint on the wood.

"Umm...welcome back," the voice continued. There was a pause when the shadow outside shifted until something blocked half the light streaming through the gap on the floor.

Anna sat down. Whatever this was going to be about, it wouldn't be short.

"I went out with Hans for lunch today at Pascal's Pizza. It was really yummy."

"And then Kristoff glared at me for dating his grad student. You think he's jealous? Maybe he has a secret crush on Hans...but I thought he was in love with the reindeer at the local zoo. What was its name again? Sven! Yeah, to remember the name of a reindeer...he's definitely in love."

"So you must be wondering why I'm telling you all this. Well, actually, I've been thinking...I want to know more about you."

"But it's rude for me to just ask, right? You're sorta my vice-boss, so what right do I have to ask? But if I first tell you about myself, then we'd become friends, and you can tell me about yourself some day."

"I know you're real nice, Elsa. I know that's who you are."

"Because who would spend so much time teaching an idiot undergrad like me?"

"Seemed like all you were doing was throwing things at me, but hey, couldn't stop thanking you when I aced my lab book check for Micro 420. I always failed those before."

"So when you were gone..."

Elsa felt an overpowering sensation. Without looking, she knew Anna's hand had reached through the gap and clawed desperately at the linoleum an inch in front of her.

"...I missed you."

_I don't know why, but I missed you._

_Your saline and pens and ice boxes of probes and antibodies and the thin piece of your hair accidentally mingled within._

_You were silent, but you were always there, watching me._

_Would you please keep watching?_

Elsa knew then that the door could no longer keep her safe from this girl called Anna, this girl she hadn't even seen once.

But she still clung onto it, because it was all she had, all these years.

She leaned onto the hard plank and slid down, sitting there.

Silence.

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

Anna was almost shocked to hear the slight vibration of sound on the door. Sliding her hand to the side, she touched coarse fabric - that of a lab coat.

She smiled.

Oh, the bubbles floating up her core, so warm and airy...

"You think you can show me how to use the microscope?"

The lab coat slipped away, but it was quickly replaced by something else, something she couldn't touch, but something even more.

Coloured lights danced on the ground, making her giggle.

"You sure it's okay to break the filter cubes turret on a 250k microscope?"

Elsa grinned as she sat down again, watching the rainbow flash while the turret spun round and round.

_I didn't break the turret, Silly. I just modified it._

For the first time in forever, she was not alone.

**End of Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Thanks Hush Puppy, Asha5267, Supremacy of Chaos, Peace Sign Freak, Lilium7904, el-sana, hMSC (is that human mesenchymal stem cell by the way, or am I just being overly nerdy?), Nayal, and the guest for their kind comments. For those who left signed reviews, I've answered them individually through PM, but if you prefer that I just answer in the author's notes instead, please let me know. I've put up a poll on my profile for this, but whatever works for you is good enough for me (smiles). A big thanks for reading and reviewing and all the favourites and follows once again: you're all really, really wonderful! With that...

Edit: After reading through a couple reviews, it totally dawned on me how strong a resemblance this has to the cake fic. Because it's too awesome, I swear, I'm utterly corrupted! So yeah, if you haven't read it yet, go search it up and read it _now_! I suppose the chocolate bar in this chapter is totally a hat tip to forkanna, the wonderful author. But rest assured this story will have no food smex. I can't write something so hot even if I tried.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 4

Five people crowded around the webcam on Elsa's bench: Gerda, Kai, Hans, Kristoff, and Anna. If you squinted hard enough, Olaf the printer, Marshmallow, the nickname everybody gave for the fluffy-looking monster drawn on Elsa's LB, and a picture of Sven the reindeer on Kristoff's desk, could also be spotted in the background. All in all, this was the complete line-up for the Winters Lab, well, except Elsa herself of course.

On the other end of this Skype conversation was Dr. Bland Brad Winters, on sabbatical somewhere warm and cozy while they were suffering from relentless autumn rain here in Arendelle. This was apparently the first lab meeting of sorts since Dr. Winters took off, thus needless to say, it was running super-late due to the myriad of matters they must discuss.

On the third hour of this meeting, when all their soft bottoms were near bleeding from sitting on hard metal stools and, consequently, most of them were dreaming of the plush made-for-boss chairs next door, Brad finally brought up the topic of...

"So who is the girl on the far right?"

Oh, who would've thought he'd finally notice a new member to his lab?

"Hi, I'm Anna. You know, the undergrad who emailed you thirty-seven times before you replied saying OK, I can work in your lab?"

"Oh, did I say that?"

Well, duh you did. Anna had that two-worded email as proof.

"She's doing a good job under Elsa's guidance," Gerda helped ease the awkward atmosphere made even more awkward because they were staring at each other through Skype. Anna smiled, hoping it wouldn't get pixelated into a smirk.

"Oh, really? That is good to hear. Speaking of which, we're up next for the building colloquium. Day after tomorrow, 2pm, usual place."

By the collective gasp, it was rather obvious attention had been abruptly switched over to the new topic. Anna didn't know whether to laugh or cry from her own invisibility - apparently, she didn't need a Harry Potter cloak to accomplish this.

"You aren't the only one," Kristoff muttered as though reading her thoughts. Why, of course the undergrads were forgotten when everybody contemplated an excuse to turn down the obvious demand for a presenter. Hans, whose face actually twitched, tried unsuccessfully to clear his voice and speak, but just managed croaking instead.

"I have a committee meeting that day...?"

"Oh, yes, that's right. I will be on Skype, I promise."

Hans couldn't hold back his deep sigh of relief.

"I presented in the last colloquium," Gerda answered. When Brad nodded, she brushed off the sweat from her forehead.

"I am really busy writing up the Genome Arendelle grant due the day after," Kai blurted out the most logical reason he could think of. Luckily, Brad seemed to have bought it.

"Tell Elsa to present then."

"Elsa!?" Anna exclaimed in utmost surprise. So sudden was her outburst that everybody was looking at her, including Brad whose eyebrows were lifted so high they could see it on the webcam.

"Is there a problem with that? Or would you like to present instead?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no. Definitely not me. Elsa's great. Elsa's awesome. You can't imagine how much I'm looking forward to seeing her at the lectern."

"Good, so next on the agenda..."

* * *

It had been two weeks since Anna started "dating" with Hans, if their little lunch dates to either the pantry or Pascal's Pizza across the street could be considered as such. When Kristoff gave her a sarcastic look about how she could even consider this a real relationship, she would complain saying they also went out for coffee at the Starbucks a ten minutes walk away instead of the one next door, so that must count as something.

"That's because the one next door doesn't accept your coupons," Kristoff retorted.

But for the past three days, Hans had declined her invitations. "Sorry, Anna, I would really love to join you, but my committee meeting is coming up and I don't have all that much to present even though I'm trying to convince them to let me switch to a PhD program, so I really have to get some results down no matter how evasive they seem."

Oh, how her heart hurt when she saw anxiety etch itself in deep creases on his handsome face! She had tried talking to Kristoff, her new lunch partner, about it, but the latter just scowled.

"Look, it's his problem for not working hard enough," the blond snapped.

"How can you say that about your grad student? You know he worked hard! But things in science aren't always that easy, right?"

"Then maybe it's his lack of ability? Maybe he isn't suited to be a scientist after all?"

"Kristoff! How can you be so inconsiderate?"

He shrugged, dark browns staring straight into her teals. After working here for around a month, she knew Kristoff wasn't trying to be obnoxious, he never was, but he was honest to the bone and seemed like he communicated more with boulders than humans on a regular basis. She knew he meant well, but sometimes it was hard taking his naked truths straight in the face.

So the day after when Kristoff asked if she wanted to come with him to the poster session in the Biosciences Building where they were serving free pizza, she politely turned him down. But after that when she unwrapped her sandwich in the pantry, she couldn't quite find the appetite for it.

It had been a while since she had eaten alone, since she first joined the Winters Lab to be accurate. Before that, she had always been by herself, absorbed in her studies just as her strict parents had taught her. Moving away from home for college gave her more opportunities to interact with others, but being the weird nerd she was, nothing much changed.

Or so it seemed, but now, she knew something had in fact _evolved_ within her.

Dumping the whole sandwich back into the fridge, she rose and made her way back to the lab. No, talking to electron micrographs or scooting around clean linoleum in the lab cart didn't seem all too appealing at the moment, so she sought out her other beloved activity - talking to a door.

"Hey Elsa, how is it going? I heard you have a presentation coming up?"

A hum sounded inside. This was Anna's latest achievement coaxing Elsa into communicating with her - instead of complete silence, she would receive a myriad of acknowledging sounds. If not for the time she saw the blonde in-person during the airflow alarm incident, she would've thought her grad student was a singing robot! Well, she supposed such a hypothesis still couldn't be ruled out. For all she knew, Elsa could very well be the most advanced android of the current age.

"So, do you like chocolate?" she continued, "Didn't have much of an appetite for anything today, but chocolate is another story..."

Anna paused to munch down on the chocolate bar she sneaked into the lab, then a super-interesting idea came to her, leaving her heart pounding.

"Want some? I know eating in the lab is sorta against the rules, but it'd be so nice if you could share it with me."

With some struggle, she managed to squish the half-eaten bar past the barricade. Surprised by the rustling sound as the wrapper scraped the bottom of the door, Elsa turned to stare at the newfound object in surprise.

When she unwrapped the remaining portion of the bar only to find a very clear bite mark separating it from its other half, she flushed.

"Like it?" Anna's voice sounded through the door again, laced with hopeful anticipation that only one like Elsa could feel. The blonde tried to clear her thoughts: this meant nothing, this meant nothing, this meant nothing...just a friendly thing for an undergrad to do, you know, in thanks for your bossing her around for the entire month since she had joined the group.

Totally convincing.

"So?" Anna whined again. Oh god, the feeling of her expectation was starting to overwhelm Elsa, and all she could do was focus on bringing the chocolate bar to her mouth.

Except the closer it came, the clearer she could make out glistening saliva remaining on the bite.

_What am I thinking!?_ Elsa screamed in her mind as she shoved the bar into her mouth and nearly choked on it in the process. She swore if Anna saw her now, the younger girl would be rolling on the ground laughing - her face was so hot she knew it was probably redder than the top band of a pride flag!

She scrunched up the wrapper and kicked it back outside with a thud on wood.

"Hahaha!" Anna laughed anyway, somehow able to guess her predicament without even seeing her, "I'll take that as a yes? You loved it, didn't you? Didn't you?"

Elsa turned around and flopped back as hard as she could onto her chair, making sure the spring made a loud enough squeak to shut Anna up. She then proceeded to turn on the biosafety cabinet so its fan drowned out the younger girl's giggles.

"Hey, I'll get us a drink. The chocolate's kinda sticking to my throat."

Elsa rolled her eyes, completely forgetting that Anna couldn't see it. No matter, she got the message anyway, waltzing off still laughing heartily at the elder's expense.

When she came back, Elsa expected her undergrad would bring her a bottle of water and continue trying to coax her into coming out - enticing since her throat was feeling icky from chocolate mucus as well, but certainly not going to work because heck, Elsa was so obsessed with her door that her life practically depended on it. In the end, she was wrong, as Anna slipped a ball of saran wrap into her room instead.

"Huh?" Elsa uttered in question. Anna knowingly nodded.

"Just unwrap it."

The blonde did as she was told only to see a piece of ice resting on it...a _heart-shaped_ piece of ice.

Silence...

"Err...did you eat it yet?"

"You don't want it?"

"Shit, did it melt? It's supposed to be a piece of ice, by the way, not my spit, because eww...that'd be gross."

"I mean I didn't give you my half-eaten chocolate bar because I wanted you to taste my spit! ...well...I sorta did...but I swear, it just occurred to me that it'd be so funny seeing you flustered over an indirect kiss even if I can't exactly see you..._what in the world am I saying!?_"

How could she flush while talking to a door, Anna would never understand.

"Err...forget what I just said. Please! What I meant was, that was a piece of ice, before it melted...or maybe it didn't...but anyway, it's clean, from the pantry, not the mouldy ice machine we use to fill our boxes."

So it wasn't a heart before it melted. Elsa tried to be glad that was the case, but disappointment seeped in instead.

Still, she popped the piece of ice into her mouth and relished in the coolness spreading throughout, down her throat and beyond.

"I ate it, Anna."

"What? Sorry?"

"I ate it."

Only then did Anna realize Elsa was talking to her.

Holy shit, Elsa the Snow Queen was talking to her! Not yelling at her to go away, but actually...talking!

"Did you like it?" She eagerly tried to squeeze more words out of this conversation, but feeling that powerful hope from the younger made Elsa back out again.

She didn't know how much courage it took for her to speak last time. Now, she just couldn't muster it again.

"Uhn..." she uttered instead. Anna couldn't help but feel a little let down, but the feeling quickly faded with renewed excitement filling the void.

Everything had to have a start.

This was the start.

* * *

But for the next few days, Anna had little time to continue her quest.

"Sorry, Elsa, Hans needs a little help on preparing for his committee meeting. He's missing some experiments, and since I've been doing similar stuff anyway, I thought he could use some of my help."

_Why do you need to apologize, Anna? It's not like you did anything bad..._Elsa thought to herself. Of course she couldn't say any of that aloud, especially when she could feel Anna's anxiety creep into her room like black shadows slithering on the walls. She groaned, but the feeling only worsened as the undergrad obviously mistook it for Elsa's disapproval.

"Please? I beg you, can you let me help him for the next three days? Just the next three days? I know you're preparing for the colloquium too, but you are so smart and everything that you probably have enough data to write your thesis already. Not that I'm trying to shy away from my responsibility on our project, you know. I love our project. And you have no idea how much I'm looking forward to seeing you speak...I practically dream of it every night. Oh God, I'm just ranting away again, am I? So what's my point? No point. I just want to help Hans, but there is nothing more to it, I swear."

_Why do you need my approval anyway? And there is nothing more to it? You don't need to make a disclaimer here when previously you pretty much drowned me with stories of your dates, OK?_

_Fine, coffee and froyo dates...not that I've done either._

"Yes?"

"Uhn."

Anna slammed herself on the door in a known-to-fail attempt to hug the blonde, "You're awesome, Elsa..._Owww_!"

* * *

So the dark room was ominously silent for the days leading up to the colloquium, with Elsa reciting her presentation for the hundredth time not because she was particularly nervous, but she was so bent on making Hans' committee meeting talk sound like crap in comparison.

_Even if he transfers, I wish he'd fail comps..._For the first time in forever Elsa cursed the innocent.

Not that she ever considered Hans as such, but his current behaviour didn't show any evidence of malice, so her scientifically-inclined mind could only come up with such a conclusion.

She really had got to wonder what on Earth did Anna like about this jackass though. No evidence of evil didn't make him a good guy. Maybe it was only obvious to her, but the feeling radiating off Hans was always that of a dejected puppy with illusions of achieving alpha-male grandeur..._all the time_!

_Calm down, Elsa. The fight is today and I'm winning it_ \- she recited in her mind. Knowing everyone would be at the dessert potluck preceding her talk, except Hans who was at his committee meeting, she took a deep breath, opened the door, and started walking to the seminar room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Anna was nervously chewing on a double fudge brownie.

"How many of those did you stuff into your mouth, like seriously?" Kristoff asked with a bored side-glance.

"Gershhht...jurwenn..."

"No, I totally don't know what you just said."

Anna held up seven fingers.

"That's not my point. You should first swallow your food."

She did, after nearly killing herself by ripping her esophagus. When the ball of food had finally squished through safely, she said, "Totally your fault for talking to me when you saw me with seven brownies in my face!"

"Nobody told you to take seven at once to begin with. What, are you a starving child from the Great Famine of 1845?"

"Do I look like one?"

"Right, you can probably lose some weight."

For that, he received a girly punch to his arm.

"So you nervous about something?"

"Well...Hans...you know, how he's doing now..."

"Really?" Kristoff cocked an eyebrow, "All I heard you talking about the past few days was Elsa's colloquium."

"Not so!"

"Yes so."

"Nuh-uh."

"Did your mental capacity just drop down to the level of a first-grader?"

"Shut up! You know you are excited about Elsa's talk too," she said, blushing. Kristoff cocked his other eyebrow. Seriously, how dense could this redhead be?

"Whatever you say, Anna. If you don't finish that piece of cake on your plate the next minute, we'll be late."

"Craaaaaaaaap!" She exclaimed, shoving it down to leave cream all over her mouth. When her cell vibrated with a text, she nearly choked, but eventually managed to fish out the device with her free hand, the other still holding her plate of food. She took a minute to stare at the message now on the screen.

_Just done the meeting. Not feeling great. Can you come? Usual coffee place._

It was Hans.

**End of Chapter 4**

_AN - a big thanks to Peace Sign Freak for inspiring the heart-shaped ice cube idea. You're awesome!_


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thanks Plucie, lesbinope, Hush Puppy, hMSC (admittedly, my brain is probably infested with images from the cake fic, which might've had a hand in what I wrote. Of course, it's nowhere near as good as _the_ cake fic, so everybody should go read it, _now_!), GuesT (don't worry, anything other than flames make me really, really happy), Nayal, Supremacy of Chaos, Asha5267, 23deecy, Peace Sign Freak, and the guests for their kind reviews. I'm still running the poll on my profile regarding whether you'd like me to reply your reviews here in the author's notes or through PM, so vote if you have a particular preference. For now, I'll be replying those who left signed reviews through PM to keep the notes short. So, let's get going with this!

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 5

Choking on the same piece of cake twice was not the smartest thing to do, but that was Anna's predicament when she caught sight of Kristoff peering over her shoulder to look at the text message.

"Look, that's just rude of him to ask you to join some pity party when he knows you want to go to Elsa's colloquium."

After she managed to gobble down the oversized bite, she answered, "And it's rude of you to look over my shoulder at my personal messages!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to make sure my gullible friend doesn't get kidnapped, okay?"

"I'm not gullible! And I'm willingly going to see Hans. That's not called kidnapping!"

She said it. Now she couldn't turn back.

"You sure?" Kristoff looked at her with concerned eyes. What was he trying to get at, sheesh!? She knew what she was doing.

Elsa didn't really need her, but Hans did, so...

"You have no obligations to him, Anna."

"I know!"

But neither did she have obligations to Elsa, as much as she might've liked to.

"Whatever, just come back early. Elsa's up third for the twenty-minute talks, so you might catch it if you're quick."

She nodded and ran. Damn it all, the skies were a whirling grey with hints of upcoming rain, the wind slicing through her left chills down her bones. For once, she wished "their Starbucks" was the one next door, not the one left of the intersection uphill.

Shoving the door open, the loud chime drew everybody's attention. Luckily, it was a cold day, so the customers quickly returned to their hot, caffeinated drinks shortly after.

"Hey," Hans gestured from a corner. Anna quickly stepped forward, careful she didn't bump into cups of boiling liquid on her way there. He had already reserved her a seat, one she took with no hesitation, plopping down without even taking off her jacket first.

"Sup?" She said as cheerfully as she could. Hans smiled politely, but looked no less dejected than before.

"Didn't know you had a habit of cutting your words short, Anna."

Her jaw fell and it took a moment for her to collect them, "Oh, yeah, have been listening to too much rap lately. Sup, Yo! Chillax'in dude?"

"Doesn't sound like rap to me," he chuckled. She tried to join in, but noticed her laughter sounded somewhat artificial.

Oh, screw it. As long as he thought it was funny and didn't catch the drift that she was rather short on time. Now that wouldn't be too nice of her, seeing as they were supposedly dating...or at least she considered their relationship as such...maybe.

"Sorry for asking you to come even though this really doesn't have much to do with you," Hans continued. She shrugged it off.

"Don't worry about it. It's totally cool with me. I mean, you've always been so nice and helpful and awesome and wonderful it's only right for me to, you know, make sure you're alright when you run into trouble. Oh, of course I don't mean you are in _trouble_ now. I have no idea what happened, but can't be the end of the world 'cause you're so smart nothing's gonna hurt you in the long run. Like, my mother said to me when I was a little kid that life's a road and when driving down, occasionally a moose would be cross'in and you'd have to slow down...wait, was it a moose or a reindeer? No, wait, why does that matter? God, am I rambling again? About my mother? Forget what I said, seriously...I'll just shut up now."

This was totally embarrassing. If she'd admit it, she was now feeling like a test-taker in the last minute of an exam, when the darned invigilator started counting down the seconds. Why the hell do they do it anyway? It made her want to rush through the last sentence and cram everything in before her pen was taken away, resulting in an onslaught of useless words and lack of necessary punctuation that only made her waste more time while contributing only to the illegibility of her answer.

"Point taken. You're here willing to listen to me, that's all that matters," Hans said. It only made her more guilty to realize her right hand was clamped overtop her watch, forcing her eyes to remain on her friend's greens.

_No need to rush, no need to rush, nothing important is coming up, I can sit here all day..._

"Anna?"

The hell, was he saying something? She totally spaced out and didn't even know for how long!

"Yes?"

"So would you like to help?"

_With what? I was totally not listening!_

"Ugghh...yeah? Why not? I can be clumsy though so don't depend on me."

"That's great. I'm sure with your data, I can pass the retest."

"Umm...data? Like...my data?"

"As I was saying, my committee wasn't too happy about what I chose to blot, even when I told them it was the screen's top hit. They asked to see the other hits, and a model for how they would fit into a biochemical pathway."

Oh, the blot she did with Hans...of the hit from Elsa's screen!

But why did Hans include the blot in his committee meeting anyway? Well, she did help him with a lot of other experiments, but that one was just supposed to be him showing her how to do a Southern! Because it wasn't even his project but Elsa's!

_He's probably desperate...can't blame him. I did say I'd help._

"Err...well...I can talk to Elsa about it and see what she thinks. I mean, it's her project after all...but I swear, she's the nicest person out there even though she seems a little weird. I'm sure she'd be fine with it if I ask politely."

This time, the guilt slammed her like a truck. Ask politely for Elsa to share her data? It was all her hard work, the work she'd come in earlier and leave later than everybody else to perform! Kristoff's words rang in her head. Did Hans deserve it? Hans might not be a lazy worker himself, but didn't change the fact those achievements were rightly Elsa's. She had no right to even ask her grad student to fulfill such a selfish request.

And when Hans opened his mouth to say something, only to decide to close it as a second thought, she felt even worse.

She couldn't face him. All this stupid guise of helping him because she self-proclaimed as his girlfriend...she wasn't even really helping, she was just going along with whatever he said because she couldn't even be honest enough to admit her focus just wasn't on solving his problems now.

"Sorry, Hans. Actually I have something important to tend to, so I've got to run," she decided to stand up and leave. Hans hung a bitter yet knowing smile. From the very beginning, this guy seemed to see right through her.

"I'm the one sorry here for holding you up. I know I'm asking too much, but you're all I have."

All he had...all she had.

Maybe the Hans she crushed on wasn't the handsome face that drew her attention the first time she stepped into the Winters Lab, but the mirror she saw behind his electric lime gaze.

"I promised to help, so I would. Whatever you need of me," she said, wondering if she was too deliberate about her vague pledge. Maybe Hans caught it too, because before exiting, she turned to hear Hans speak once more with a waving hand.

"Don't worry about the data thing. I just wanted to...collaborate...so we'd have something to share together."

* * *

Contrary to common belief, Elsa was not a bad presenter.

When it was her turn, she stepped calmly up the podium, shirt creased, jacket smart, shoes tidy but didn't sparkle, giving her a clean yet down-to-earth look.

Unlike how she usually wore her braid, over a shoulder or down her back, it was fashioned in an arc above her, shining in its crisp white gold. The ice blues that cast over the audience silenced them, and after the host's introduction, she began.

It was to no surprise she felt a distinct shift of feelings radiating from the crowd. It began with cautious curiosity, something animal trainers would teach you to look for in the repertoire of behaviours healthy animals exhibited. They were like mice that scurried back into their homes when you slipped your finger through the cage, but after a little while, they'd poke their heads out and come check you out eventually. As her talk progressed though, that slight distrust, yet unwilling desire to understand her faded to genuine interest in what she had to say. The excitement echoing in her veins told her as much, comforting her because she knew she had successfully drawn attention off herself. This was what she loved most about science, its objectiveness, its cold, hard, impersonal nature. There was no need for others to know her. They just needed to know her hypothesis, results, and conclusion. That was it.

But as her speech moved from the novel and absolutely massive functional screens she performed on some of the most exotic environments on their planet, drawing tangents to a prehistoric Earth where life itself first emerged from the primordial soup, to her bold attempts at directed evolution of diverse prokaryotic serine proteases that miraculously yielded enzymes with restricted, yet highly efficient activities for substrates of the human complement system, her audience was completely invested in the story. But she found, much to her shock, she herself was drawing back.

Into her conclusion on how this research had direct implications on the pathogenesis of certain disease-causing cousin strains of the species she found, and a more far-fetched claim that this might shed light on the ancient origins of serine protease families, she stuttered, her mind flashing over the bottle of champagne in her memory.

Dr. Winter's pride, her faraway parents' hopes, all coalescing with a voice filled with admiration once sounding on the other side of her door.

_"...I missed you."_

Anna wasn't here, she realized, and she missed her. She couldn't even believe it, but this was the void collapsing all the carefully-stacked bricks in her perfect stone tower of professionalism.

This wasn't a movie. Even if she refused to end her presentation until the girl appeared through the doors, it wouldn't happen. Besides, she didn't even recognize Anna. For all she knew, the warm feeling was just inexistent, and though she never thought the cold would bother her, it did.

So she didn't look at the door. She turned down to her remote and clicked for the next slide, the last acknowledgements slide.

"Here, I'd like to thank our funding agencies, Genome Arendelle and the AIHR for their generous monetary support, my committee members Dr. Weselton and Dr. Corona for their suggestions and the samples they kindly donated, as well as all my colleagues from the Winters Lab, especially my supervisor Brad, and undergraduate helper Anna. Thank you."

There. She felt it. The happiness. The joy. The tearful cry to her recognition.

Anna.

Amongst the clapping crowd, her widened eyes swept to a latecomer standing near a pillar, the only spot she could find in the completely-filled hall. That was the first time they met, blues with teals, then she surveyed the rich braids of strawberry-blonde, tanned face adorned with adorable freckles, and that smile, that smile that just seemed to overtake her world.

The novel feeling making her heart pound was terrorizing her, but she couldn't let go of it. It was the first time she found a presentation so fulfilling that despite all fears, she wanted it to last forever.

The rest of the questions session breezed by. She hardly remembered what it was about, what she even answered with, her senses, her mind, her everything completely devoted to something entirely different.

But with the final round of applause following and a content audience starting to file out the room, she came to her senses, just in time to avoid the girl who was starting to walk up to her.

_No, no, I'm not ready for this yet..._

"Sorry," she apologized to her fellow presenter who supplied the laptop, abruptly pulling her USB key out and darting for the back doors. Surprised by the sudden action, Anna nearly tripped over herself trying to turn back the other direction so she could intercept Elsa outside the hall. Damn it! She was almost sliding on flawless floorboards due to the puddles of water she was literally dripping all over them, having ran back from the coffee shop while it was pouring outside. Turning a sharp corner with an eardrum-ripping squeak, she managed to catch sight of the blonde, but still just short of reaching and grabbing her.

"Damn it, Elsa! How the hell can you be so athletic when you shut yourself in a dark room!?" She yelled after the quickly-fading figure, though she figured, she wasn't all that angry after all.

Because she did see Elsa smiling.

By the time she made it back to the lab, the grad student was locked in once again. It was rather disappointing, but Anna swallowed it, plopping down against the door.

"You know I rushed back to see your presentation? In the rain? And I'm soaked as a result? You could've at least stayed and let me ask a question."

Chuckles sounded on the other end, and when they finally stopped, a very small voice started speaking, one she wouldn't have caught if she wasn't trying so intently to listen.

"What can you ask about when you only saw the acknowledgements slide?"

"Oh, I was gonna ask why you didn't put my name in bold comic sans font, each letter a different colour, because I'm so obviously special."

_You are special, Anna._

_Don't you know how hard I'm trying to ignore that? To ignore you?_

Elsa paused against the door, hand shaking while reaching for the knob. In the end, she still pulled it back and just slid herself down to the ground.

_I'm so scared._

_I'm so scared._

"I'm so scared..." she whispered, but it was already enough for Anna to hear it. She couldn't understand, for there was nothing to understand, but for some reason, she felt like she did.

"I know," Anna ended up answering. It was funny, because what did she know anyway? Right, just that one day Elsa would open that door, and when she did, it would be for her. "I trust you. You will come out, I will wait."

It was sad, because Elsa couldn't promise anything.

If things stayed this way, at least this was the extent of what would happen between the two of them. Sure, parting would be difficult when it came time for Anna to graduate, but it wasn't irreparable. It wouldn't hurt for too long, for either of them, because Anna was just seeing a mirage of her, an image the younger girl projected to fill the missing pieces of their interactions. Anna didn't know the real her, the ugly, selfish, cowardly her who left others wounded and refused to treat them because she couldn't even get herself to acknowledge the deed.

She didn't deserve kindness, but just like any other human being, she yearned for it.

"Elsa?" Anna spoke up again, "Do you want to make a rainbow?"

In that split second, it just snapped for her.

"No," she answered firmly, with possession and hunger. Instead, Elsa sought direct contact with Anna's hand, gripping it under the door.

**End of Chapter 5**


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Thanks YvonneChou, Luniverse, theBringerofWar, AsheWottlin, Time Variant, Kid Iccarus, Plucie, Nayal, el-sana, 23deecy, Peace Sign Freak, PhantomGemini, GuesT, Asha5267, and the other guests for their kind reviews. Of course, also thank you everyone for reading, following, favouriting. Your support means a lot to me, especially when I'm going through quite a bit of shit in real-life, which would hopefully die down by the end of the month so I can concentrate on writing this. About Hans' behaviour in the last chapter (and this one), it'll become fairly clear that he is not committing academic fraud. He is just being an ass, which people are completely capable of being, unfortunately. Alright, so let me begin venting! (Oh come on, you have tumblr for that...this is a fanfic, not an extended metaphor of your life...)

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 6

"I just don't get you," Kristoff muttered between mouthfuls of sandwich, "Make that I don't get you two, but not getting the Snow Queen should already be obvious."

Anna ignored him while she continued munching on a chocolate-chip cookie. This just earned her a weird-out gaze from her friend who obviously disapproved of her choice for lunch.

"I'm not talking about the cookie if that's what you're thinking, Anna. I know you never eat anything but dessert."

"I ate pizza across the street with Hans before," she protested, but immediately regretted it, knowing she just left a huge, gaping opening for the blond to continue his inquiry.

"Speaking of which, why aren't you eating with him anymore?"

"He's busy preparing for his second shot at PhD transferral. He doesn't even eat lunch anymore."

"Really?"

"Really."

How much of this was truth, Anna honestly didn't know. She had been actively trying to avoid Hans the past few days while a certain burning question invaded her mind.

Good that she hadn't told Kristoff about this. Look how nosy he was about the other thing she let slip from her mouth.

"I think this does mean you can care less about what Hans is doing now. Great improvement, except your infatuation for grad students have hardly died."

"Gosh, Kristoff, what do you mean by infatuation?"

A pause while the burly blond tapped on his iphone, "Wikipedia says it's the state of being carried away by unreasoned passion or love."

"Seriously!? You're citing Wikipedia for this?"

"It's good enough for the structure of glycidol, so why not? The unreasoned part sounds accurate enough."

Anna groaned, "I'm not infatuated, and certainly not with grad students. What's good about them? The fact they never graduate, or their stipends put them under the poverty line?"

"I don't know, I'm not the one grinning all day after her grad student grabbed her hand."

At this, she shoved the last bite of cookie into her mouth just so she could cross her arms in defence of her dignity, "You know how hard is it to get Elsa to open up?"

Kristoff grinned, "Yeah, and you seem to_ love_ the process, as much as you _love_ chocolate."

She glared daggers at him, totally understanding his not-so-subtle implication. Okay, so she could understand his teasing about her earlier crush on Hans, but now that he shifted focuses, she found herself taking slight offense.

"I just want to communicate with her! I think I deserve that much."

The statement came out a bit more forceful than she herself expected, but Kristoff just smiled while he rounded the table on his way to trash an empty juice box, leaving a squeeze on her shoulder along the way, "Of course you deserve it, Silly. So what's making you hold the distance now? "

He left her to herself, knowing she probably needed it. Damn it, Kristoff, did he seriously think she wanted this?

But the incident a couple days ago when Elsa suddenly squeezed her hand under the door...it wasn't that simple. Kristoff couldn't understand! Sure, she was happy. No, she was elated! All because she finally connected with the Snow Queen. It was, however, the connection that made her wary of her previously careless actions.

"Argh..." Anna made a funny noise while she rubbed her redhead with sweaty palms, freeing up messy strands from her twin braids. First things first, Feisty Pants, there was that promise she made with Hans. She'd help him, no doubt about it, but she really didn't want Elsa involved. Still, the more hairs she pulled out her scalp trying to think of a solution, the more she realized her position as a clueless little undergrad helping a much more brilliant vice-boss. Cramming in three seminars between her weekly classes didn't exactly give her new ideas.

She sought out Gerda and Kai who she was inclined to call Mom and Dad by now. They were the parental figures of the lab considering Brad Winters was still away. But aside from an onslaught of technical terms like blast, blast, blast (which was NCBI's Basic Local Alignment Search Tool by the way, who would've figured?), she simply realized the ambitious endeavour of figuring out a biochemical network model was too huge for her to complete by herself.

So after some more background research, she devised a plan and bugged Kristoff to help her with it.

"Why me? Why don't you just ask Elsa for help? It's her project."

She was left with an open mouth. Well, it was Elsa's library, which was not really her library so to speak, but the one she obtained from the Weselton Lab. The screen and the blot were Elsa's ideas, sure, which was why Anna tried to put those aside and use an entirely different approach to help Hans. It just didn't feel...right to go along with the original experimental outline, which Hans had no involvement in drafting.

"Well...umm...I'm trying to be sneaky and go the opposite direction, you know? Side project?"

"Don't tell me you're trying to do something miniscule and exaggerate its worth to fight for an authorship, because that is just nasty character," Kristoff gave her a look of disdain. She widened her eyes in shock, not because that was her purpose, but what he said reminded her of...

Before she could sort out her line of thought, Kristoff already snapped, "You aren't that kind of person. So that explains it, it's Hans. Tell me. What did he ask you to do?"

He was grabbing her shoulders and almost shaking the daylights out of her now. It was so hard explaining to the big oaf he was! "No, he just asked me for help on making a model, that's all! It will not have anything to do with Elsa's project. I don't want it to have anything to do with her because she doesn't deserve to have her hard work stolen by the likes of anybody, Hans or myself!"

He stopped, trying to calm down, "I get it, Anna. You're too nice. You want to help him, and being his undergrad, I'll work with you to accomplish that. But I swear to the Nobel Prize that I'm not kidding when I say you've got to be careful around this guy. I don't want him using you, or Elsa for that matter."

Was Hans using her? Maybe. Most likely, but this was no new revelation. She probably realized when he asked for data, when he took her blot without telling her, or even before that, when he went out with her for lunch and coffee just to talk about her project and see what he could get out of it.

But it made her feel needed. That was why she cherished her crush on him, even if it were almost fictional. He replaced the void she wanted filled, the fantasy to numb reality - she wasn't the goddess Kristoff made her seem to be, she was using Hans the same way he was using her!

What Kristoff made her realize, something that really bothered her, fed her guilt, was her own selfish actions had been dragging others into the mess - Kai, Gerda, Kristoff himself, all helping her while being kept in the dark about the truth of it all. And most of all Elsa, the secluded, scared Elsa behind a door she pried open only to leave a gap for Hans to sneak in and take what little she carefully guarded.

She wouldn't let it happen. She needed to stop being a coward and face the starkness of the world, even if she'd be hurt.

"I will talk to Hans," she said, "I won't let him use Elsa."

Kristoff stared into her steel-hard teals, seeing her small frame stiffen to match the determined display. It hurt him. Why was his tongue so useless it kept spouting out the wrong words for what he really meant?

"Look, Anna. You aren't to be blamed. You don't need to feel responsible for..."

"But I am!"

Silence. They glared at each other, neither backing away.

He finally turned to the side and sighed, "Okay. Fine. Whatever. We help Hans this one last time, get this model together, and that's it. You promise me, that's it with Hans. You go talk to him about yourself, how you ain't getting used by the likes of an ass like him, ever again. You got that?"

She just looked away.

* * *

Three long days. Three long days when Anna would lock herself in the library not studying for a midterm but figuring out Hans' problem, and the bastard didn't even know it! This was enough for Kristoff to do something totally out-of-character.

Kristoff did not pride himself for being an intuitive person. He could see the surface of individuals well enough, but lacked the interaction to delve deeper - this wasn't a fact he wanted to change in the near future, because though the brawny blond didn't want to admit it, people somewhat scared him.

Reindeer are so much better than people. Give Sven a carrot and he would be happy. People aren't so simple. All the granola bars he ever left for the Snow Queen were returned without fail.

It had been quite a long while since he stopped by the dark room, but on this night, when he knew everyone except for her had gone home, he mustered the courage to knock on the locked door once again.

"Hey, it's been a while."

No answer.

"Sorry, I know I'm a nuisance, but there's really something I'd like to talk to you about."

The sound of a buzzing pipette gun stopped as though in acknowledgement of his presence; at least that was what he'd like to think. Honestly, he wasn't the type of guy to dig into others' business - it might be a little, teeny, weeny bit lonely trekking the cold mountains of research by himself, but he was content enough to come across the trolls of knowledge along the way. Still, this time he had no choice.

"I want to talk to you about Anna."

There was a deadly silence hanging in the air, almost as though neither of them breathed. The biosafety cabinet roared on. That was about it.

That was when he inhaled deeply and forgot about where to start, just focused on blurting it all out without missing a single word.

"I know it's not my position to say this, but she won't say it, so being her friend I just have to do it for her. The girl likes you, you know? I don't know how she can manage to see you through a door, but obviously you are doing something to connect with her. That's the connection you build, then you turn around and sever it, then you build it again...don't you think this on-off thing has got to end soon?"

Still no response. Even though he wasn't expecting one, he was getting more frustrated, "She doesn't deserve this shit! Can't you just choose one way or the other and leave her at peace?"

There was a pause, then a thud on glass, probably Elsa's fist making contact with the pane on the BSC. He sighed, "Sorry. I'm really sorry. I don't mean to take it all out on you. This wasn't why I came."

"Anna doesn't want you to know about this, so she's been hiding it from me until she accidentally let it slip a couple days ago: Hans is trying to use her to get his hands on your project. You have no idea how guilty she feels about it. She's trying to handle it all by herself but obviously she can't."

_Anna is always the one reaching out. She always thinks about whether she is needed by others. _

_Never does she ask herself what she needs and wants. She doesn't dare, damnit!_

"She needs you, Elsa."

There, he said it. He had no right to, but he said it. It was enough. He didn't deserve an answer, so he just left, knowing it wouldn't come.

* * *

It had been a week since Anna stopped by the dark room, since Elsa held her hand.

She still remembered how it felt, cold, shaking, but tightly gripping her own as though letting go would take her life. For a second, the barrier between them was no more. Raw emotions poured into her heart, Elsa's gargantuan fear, and the small beacon of hope she hid under layers and layers of protection - the hope someone would drag her out her kingdom of isolation.

Anna wanted to embrace the dim glow, to nurture it into a brightness rivalling the sun, but she was unsure, she had no confidence in handling something so fragile...

...especially when she couldn't even handle rejection well enough to put all her money on _Nature_ and would re-format a manuscript for _A Random Journal on Mangoes_, even when she was writing about bananas.

Stupid internal joke, she chided herself. It was over, though. It had to be over. She had come to a decision and would abide by it. Kristoff was right. That model would be the last. She was over Hans. She would move past and move on.

So it was with a bit of a smug smile to find herself propped in front of Elsa's door, holding the sheet of paper she found on her bench that morning.

"You say we have a high school student coming in to volunteer for ten hours? And you want me to handle her?" Anna puffed out her chest and deepened her voice in a ridiculous manner, "Oh, Anna, my trusted aide, may I bequeath this noble responsibility to thy hands, let thee give guidance to yonder young one completing his career prep graduation requirements?"

Elsa didn't know to laugh or cry. Obviously. Anna could hear muffled giggles behind the door.

_I so do not speak like that, Anna._

_And did you fail English Literature in high school? You're probably the one looking for some guidance on your language skills..._

"Anyways, I'll entertain her with tip-stacking and autoclaving trash. Don't worry, I'll manage to stop her from burning down the lab. But really, Elsa, how can you TA at this rate? Isn't it...like...a grad school requirement to TA at least once?"

_Don't worry about me._

If only Anna could see the Snow Queen's sneer when she shoved an enclosed envelope under the door.

"What's that? For me?" Anna asked. When met with no response, she assumed an affirmation and opened up the brown pocket for a paper stack within.

Report #1: The Diversity of Life on Earth  
Microbiology 450  
Anna Summers

"Holy crap, you are my online course TA!?"

She flipped the red smeared pages to the very back where an unholy grade awaited her alongside a rather threatening comment:

_You wasted ten minutes of my life trying to find Figure 12, which is inexistent. Can't say I appreciate it. _

_\- Elsa_

It was with some excitement to read the comment. Elsa's handwriting, neat, small, but oddly powerful. And she signed it. And she felt so, so very familiar. Anna couldn't help reread it again and again and again.

_I must be a masochist._

"You didn't have to fail me for mislabelling a figure!" She decided to yell through the door. Elsa just sauntered back to her seat and grinned into the computer monitor.

_Anna, just do your homework properly and take care of the high school student._

_Leave Hans to me. I won't let him hurt you._

**End of Chapter 6**


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Thanks Peace Sign Freak, theBringerofWar, Plucie, elfspirit7, Don't know Don't care 38, Luniverse, Moral Attention, brunhe, GuesT, Kid Iccarus, Asha5267, Skairu, 23deecy, Supremacy of Chaos, el-sana, Nayal, YvonneChou, and the guests for their kind comments. And feel free to review or PM me if you find any errors that I need to change - I'd be more than happy to learn from you. And also, thanks for all the follows and favourites. You're all so nice!

Oh, and I added Rapunzel into this story, but she's younger than Anna here, not that I have been following the ages of the characters closely either way.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 7

Kristoff assigned Anna's new high school student a secret nickname, Princess Corona, seeing as Rapunzel was the daughter of Elsa's committee member and the lab's major collaborator, Dr. Corona.

But contrary to what they were all led to believe from Kai's tales about her childhood lab tours, Rapunzel was no damsel-in-distress knocking over bottles of dry-ice treated bubbling Kool-Aid meant to impress five-year-olds, she was rather capable as a tip stacker, beating Anna on her first try at filling the box of P1000s.

"I heard you tripped over your long blonde hair and fell face first into the recycle bin as a kid, what happened since then?" Anna couldn't help asking above the noise of Rapunzel smacking an ELISA plate onto the bench. Gosh, give her a frying pan and the girl could send a burglar flying to the middle of the Pacific.

"Oh, the hair? Cut it. Dyed it. You like this brown?"

"Well...uhh...I didn't mean the hair. I mean how did you get so damn good at doing this stuff."

Anna wouldn't admit she was jealous. She wasn't all that clumsy herself, capable of jumping up to a poster five feet off the floor, limbs spread out widely in an attempt to imitate the dendritic cell's morphology. She just had no talent in bike riding and mountain climbing and for whatever reason it was, lab work.

More than once Kristoff had to stop her from spilling chloroform all over her shoes while retrieving it from the flammables cabinet.

"I don't know. Comes naturally I guess?" Rapunzel replied to snap Anna out of her musings. _Damn it, Anna, not time to daydream about how you were outdone by a highschooler, time to think about how to abandon said higschooler to her own devices so you had time to finish up that model for Hans._

"Since it comes so naturally, I suppose I can just leave it to you, right? ELISAs aren't incredibly difficult, so I'm sure you can handle it."

"Oh?" Rapunzel turned around to flash a bright green gaze at her, "You got something super-important going on?"

"Well. No. Not super-important..." she trailed off, sort of annoyed the younger girl saw through her plan to leave so easily once again. Rapunzel snickered.

"Doing something for that handsome master's student? Heard all about it from Kristoff. He will finish it up while you stay here with me."

Gosh, this girl! How did she even get to know Kristoff after only working here two days? And now she was scheming with him?

"Oh, come on, you could..."

"Nuh uh, Ms. Supervisor. I still have plenty of questions to ask you, like why do you autoclave trash at 120 degrees Celsius? And why does the tape turn black afterwards?"

_And why do you even need to know that? _\- Anna groaned. Damn Elsa. Damn Kristoff. Damn them all!

At least Rapunzel had to leave in two hours. High school students, still living with their mommies. She'd never understand the wonders of microwave dinners until she reached Anna's age. But Anna had got to confess Rapunzel left her absolutely drained after her little visit, so when the clock ticked six, she couldn't get herself to move anymore, let alone work on Hans' shit for him.

Absolutely perfect coordination between Kristoff and the new student, huh? If she wanted this problem solved, she had got to figure things out with her friend.

So when the blond made his way out the lab, she volunteered to walk him to the bus loop. He just stared at her like she were crazy, but nodded anyway.

"Thought you took the train?" he muttered, breath fogging up in the cold night of late autumn. Anna trudged her boots through the fallen maple and huffed.

"Isn't it your fault that I have to walk with you? Because you ganged up on me with Rapunzel?"

The girl's intentions dawned on him and he sneered, dark marbles narrowed, "Sheesh, Anna, can't you just leave that Hans business behind and mind your own business?"

"And you can't mind your own business? I asked you to help me finish the model, not do all the work for me."

"Well, you're the one staying late every night working for the asshole who doesn't know or appreciate it."

"And how do you know he's an asshole? And he doesn't appreciate it?"

Kristoff just looked up to the dark skies in exasperation. This was like they had gone back to the old times when Anna first joined the lab. Was it his own lack of interpersonal skills that led to their arguments, or was it Anna's naive reluctance to admit the existence of any evil on planet Earth?

"Okay. Whatever, Anna. I'm done with the model anyway so no point talking about it. I was gonna shove it in his face tomorrow and that's it, but you just had to bring it up now."

"Oh..."

It took about three seconds before she remembered to close her mouth. The cold was starting to bite and she was glad Kristoff decided to take a short cut through the medical library, her body's desire to shiver waned to the warm air flooding her system instead. But there was something lacking in the air here that distinguished it from the breeze outside, that faint scent of undergrowth mingled with a tinge of fresh rain, the force of nature so powerful and fearsome yet simple and pristine. No artificial environment could ever hope to match it. Even in the imagination of an architect, such perfect design never existed.

Kristoff opened the back door and they were outside again.

Surrounded by trees on the path to the bus stop, under the dim glow of moon and stars overhead, she realized she had been composing an extended metaphor in her head.

"What's the matter?" Kristoff asked when he saw Anna standing still on the path. She turned to him, a weird dazed look on her face.

"You ever dated anyone?"

"Why?"

"Come on, just answer me."

He looked away. There went his image as the love expert, thrown out the window, "Err...no?"

She even laughed at him!

"What!?" he continued indignantly, "Have you? And don't say with Hans, because that doesn't count."

She paused for a bit, twirling her fingers, "Unless it's in a dream with a perfect Disney prince, nope."

"Disney..." he spat out the word, then laughed even louder than she did previously, "You serious? That's your fantasy date?"

"Shut up, Kristoff. There's nothing wrong with Disney. They make awesome musicals, and it's not just _The Lion King_."

He lowered the volume of his chuckles and patted Anna's back while they resumed walking, "Okay. Fine. Nothing wrong with being obsessed with childish sappy romance."

"As if you know anything about romance, Loner. Bet you haven't even had a crush on anybody before."

And his next pat on Anna's shoulders nearly sent her kissing the pavement, "Sorry. Didn't mean it."

He was flushing.

"Oh, you do have a crush on somebody?"

_Gosh, Anna, that's not the point!_

"No."

_Point is..._

"There's no meaning to having a crush on anybody. If you stand a chance, you confess. If you don't, you forget it. That's that," Kristoff ended.

He was just standing there at the top of the hill, so small in comparison to the skies in the background, but somehow still seemed to occupy her sight. Wow. Just wow. Everybody had their moments, but Kristoff's was ever so overwhelming.

"Hey," she called when she caught up to him.

"What?"

"You know why I asked you about the romance thing?"

He just looked at her in a manner that totally said, "No duh..."

"Because all my life I've been pretty much alone. Lovey dovey dreams keep me going."

It would obviously be rude if he asked what was wrong about her childhood, or if she had a major personality flaw here, as curious as he was about why Anna had been alone. He kept his mouth shut though, because he was pretty much the same.

"Yeah, I sorta get it. The lonely thing," he said instead.

"So when I saw Hans, it was like...for the first time in forever, I've got a chance! That kind of feeling."

"You deserve better than that jackass," he growled. She chuckled.

Was that true? Did she deserve better? She wondered.

"I don't know. I don't think I deserve anything, because I don't even know what true love is."

He had nothing to rebuke. Neither of them had even been in love before, let alone true love. What could he say to that?

She reached up and punched his shoulder playfully, "Hey, but I now know what true friendship is."

He grinned. If he must define true love, it'd be to give without wanting anything in return.

In that case, friendship was more than he could ask for.

"Sure, girl. You have me."

In that cold night, his company kept her warm, so they trudged on in silence till reaching the busy street bounding the campus where the bus loop was located.

"I guess you're right," she finally uttered before parting.

"Sorry? What?"

"About there being no meaning to crushes."

"Oh..."

He didn't quite know what she meant, but she didn't elaborate either, just blurting out the next out-of-context sentence that sent his mind whirling.

"Hey, that completed model, mind giving it to me? I need to talk with Hans anyway."

Kristoff realized he had no idea what Anna was ever up to. But so be it, whatever it was, he would be there supporting her.

So he nodded.

* * *

Hans usually wasn't the first one in, but he did arrive early enough to suffer his mornings in the lab. To survive, he had a routine going: put down his bag, set up his laptop, wash his hands with warm water and soap, then get the coffee brewing in the pantry before returning to check his email; this allowed him to function flawlessly despite having a hazy brain. He had a professional image to uphold. Just look at his hair, gelled everyday to the same perfection, sideburns always fantastic. His smile could probably go on a whitening toothpaste commercial. Sometimes, Kristoff had got to wonder whether it was a waste for Hans to work at a research lab considering he could probably find greater success as a real estate agent.

"Christopher, the LB," Hans said at ten, the beginning of a two-hours block he dedicated to his first experiment of the day. Kristoff rolled his eyes while he passed the medium.

"It's Kristoff. Your memory that bad?"

Hans only snorted while he swirled the medium around in its bottle, watching white streaks rise from the bottom with the movement to cloud up the yellow liquid, "Likewise, Bjorgman, you remember what I said about contaminated medium? _This_ is a perfect example."

He rolled his eyes again, "Sure, and whose fault would that be?" He passed the next bottle sitting on the bench anyway, and Hans took it over promptly, only to smirk once more.

"Well, well, this is a fresh bottle and it too is contaminated. I wonder who made the medium?"

"Look, no way it's me unless the autoclave is broken. Heck, the tape is still on and it's black, so not my problem."

After a moment of pondering, Hans sent Kristoff off to make fresh media while he opened up the contaminated bottles and wafted for a scent. Instead of the pungent _E. coli_ he was expecting, it smelled faintly of bread sweetness and the sting of beer.

_Saccharomyces_

But they weren't a yeast lab. It'd be rare for this kind of contamination to occur by chance, especially when it happened to both bottles. He then asked around the lab to see if others had the same problem, but it seemed that he was the only one.

Suspicion laced his mind. He had an idea who might've done this, especially when this person was the only one who had made yeast libraries for screening.

So he pulled up the sketchy email he had deleted from his junk box earlier that day. It had no subject and no body and the address came from some random hotmail account composed of a nonsensical combination of letters and numbers. He grudgingly inspected the untitled attachment that was on it.

Screw it, if it killed his computer with a virus, he'd reformat. He always backed up anyway.

The file passed a Norton scan at any rate. It was just a pdf, and when he opened it, his suspicions were confirmed.

He was looking at a detailed report on a yeast screen, or rather, a series of screens. There was the activity data of transfected clones for several enzymes, then an array constructed from these clones for interaction screening, and confirmation studies on rescue phenotypes. It was just one experiment short of a paper - isolating the proposed consortium of microbes that supplied the original genes and trying to grow them. Obviously, it wasn't an easy task growing environmental strains, but if it worked out, it would've been quite a discovery, seeing as said consortium would be the first-ever of eukaryotic origins that could degrade the complex hydrocarbon substrate being investigated.

Needless to say, this was Elsa's side project, and she was giving it to him.

Coupled with the yeast she used to contaminate his LB, he could only conclude her message was, "Take what I give and stop screwing with Anna, or else!"

"Hahaha," Hans actually cackled, sending Anna wide-eyed when she approached him. How could he stop himself, even with the mask he usually wore to trick the world into thinking he was the most gentle of gentlemen? Oh Elsa, his acquaintance of many years, no wonder he was the one who knew her best! How would anyone else guess that hidden aggressiveness of hers? She might constantly be running away, but at heart she was a lioness, Queen of Fierce Nature, ready to pounce if anybody chased her and crossed that boundary into her secret territory. She had pent-up anger, ready to explode should someone light the fuse. Hans knew. He had seen so many like her. All his elder brothers and their talents, born to greatness so born with arrogance he could never rival. Did she seriously think this would get rid of him? Stupid! Foolish! Immature! Elsa Snow could understand each of the estimated ten to the twenty-ninth power individual microbes on this planet and she would never understand the one man in her own lab, him!

"Umm, Hans, are you busy at the moment?" Anna interrupted his thoughts with her meek voice. He smiled his kindest smile and rose from his seat so she could look into his electric greens. He saw her captured gaze reflecting his image, knowing her heart was likewise captured at this moment.

"I always have time for you, Anna." He summoned a low, smooth tone, one of confidence and reassurance, one inviting and caring.

"Well, I won't take too long. Here is a model for your committee. Hope it works."

He took over her folder and skimmed its contents. Truth be told, he didn't need the information; it wasn't even what his committee had problems with in the first place. He merely said it so he could use Anna to obtain Elsa's data, then if he contributed an analysis, he would've bought himself a place on Elsa's project. Some might view it as petty, but he could always use additional publications - mainly though, he merely detested Elsa and wanted to make her pay.

But this model didn't have any of Elsa's data.

"You made this yourself?"

Anna nodded, rubbing her left thumb in nervousness, "Yeah. With Kristoff. Sorry if it isn't really good."

It wasn't really good, but that was not the issue.

She made it herself because she figured out Hans' intentions. She wanted to protect Elsa, but at the same time, she didn't want to hurt him.

"Why?" was all he could get himself to mutter.

"Didn't you need this? So I thought I'd help..."

"Why!?" he repeated louder, almost shouting.

He didn't need pity. He didn't need kindness. If he ever pulled someone down he'd step on him on his way up. That was how the world worked. He didn't need it to change.

"You knew already," he continued when Anna was silent, "that I was just using you."

She widened her eyes in surprise, but he could read that it wasn't surprise from his revelation, but surprise from his willingness to make it.

"You said we're alike, right? I understand. You just want recognition. You just don't want to be alone.

I don't want to be alone either."

He felt like chuckling again. Gosh, how pure could Anna be? She was like a newborn baby, blank as a sheet, seeing only the world's good. No wonder Kristoff always acted like he was damn fed up with her. As a friend, how could the blond not worry?

A small part of Hans was wondering if he was starting to worry too.

"It doesn't matter, does it?" he managed to say softly, something burning in his chest. Damn it. He thought he was over it. Feeling anything about anybody. "You shouldn't think about anybody but yourself. We're all selfish. I don't expect you to be different."

She didn't say anything, but her look told him she disagreed. Even after this, she was still trusting him?

But really, why was he saying all this? Why did he have to react to her offering? Take it, run with it, steal more from her until she was broke. Why couldn't he just do something simple like that?

Anna knew the answer. He hated how she knew of that small bit of humanity still left in him.

He sighed and put his large hand on her fluffy redhead, "Whatever, Anna. I accept your kindness. Thank you."

This was probably the most genuine thing he had said in years. Sweet Anna. Kind Anna. She had a pull others didn't have. He could use her forever, but she made even the devil feel guilty.

They were so alike yet so different. Maybe she was there for him to look at what he could become if he tried hard enough.

Whether or not he could, or he wished to change his ways, he still didn't know. But for now, he did want to do a small little something for her. Inwardly he was chiding himself - small little something for your sworn enemy too, what the hell was that!? Still, it balanced out what Anna had given him, he decided. He might always be taking from others, but that was only because he felt entitled after what the world took away from him. Even he had a conscience to feed.

"Are we still friends?" he asked.

"Did we ever stop?"

They laughed together. Hans smiled, noting his success at dictating Anna's reactions once more, "Then I can't just take your model here. We should share it. You and me, and Kristoff too if you'd like. I'll polish this up and we should make a poster, submit an abstract and go to the International Creative Genomics Conference in the Isles down south. We'll have a blast, I assure you."

She stopped, as he predicted. There was her characteristic unease, rubbing her hands together like no tomorrow. Good. He was pushing in the right direction.

"I'll think about it," she said.

* * *

Night. When Hans made his way out the lab, he found Kristoff waiting at the door.

What was wrong with him today? Their only exchange were usually glares. What were those beers in the blond's hands for?

"Heard from Anna you want to do a poster with me too. Thought I should buy you a beer for that," he said. Hans just snorted.

"Lay it off, Bjorgman. You know Anna would say no."

"She's gonna talk to Elsa about it. That's what she told me."

He smiled. Just as planned. As for Elsa's side, he wondered what would her reaction be to the printout he slipped under her door.

"So? You gonna have the beer or not? 'Cause I can totally clean two," Kristoff continued. Hans snatched the can out of his hand and walked ahead.

"I take whatever's given. It's a policy."

* * *

Inside the dark room, Elsa stared at the write-up she sent anonymously to Hans earlier that day, returned back to her in printed form. A post-it now adorned the first page, reading, "I haven't given up on Anna, not because I have a grudge on you from the time we were at the orphanage, but because she deserves better than someone who never lets her in."

She sat back on her chair until it creaked under pressure. Still, the tightness throughout her body wouldn't go away. She was tense. She was frustrated. How utterly humiliating was it to have Hans spell out her guilt?

"Elsa?" a voice interrupted. Anna's voice. "We need to talk. Please."

_No. Please no. I don't want to talk. I don't want to listen. I don't want to hurt you but why can't I get myself to stay away?_

Every step she walked towards the door, her inner alarm sounded danger. She was going to do something horribly wrong. There would be no way of going back. But a certain urgent possessiveness propelled her to move faster, closer, finally deleting the distance, leaving only the door between them. She placed her hand on the handle.

Stupid piece of wood, it never protected anyone anyway. Neither herself nor Anna - she had just been too weak to acknowledge this.

Her fears be damned, this must end today.

Putting strength into her fist, she turned the knob and opened the door.

**End of Chapter 7**


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Thanks Yuiiub, TheElementHero, GhostofWintersPast, GuesT, jonesey, Luniverse, WarThunder, PhantomGemini, Kid Iccarus, 23deecy, Supremacy of Chaos, brunhe, Nayal, ElsaStoleMyPen, rundownSabEr, Dark Devices, el-sana and the kind guests for their awesome comments, and everybody else for reading, following, favouriting. Thanks a bunch man! I really appreciate it. I've got to confess though, I have no idea what I'm doing, so hopefully this open-door chapter doesn't disappoint too much. As my PI has just so kindly informed me, my writing is shit, so I'd suggest you automatically fill in my "confusing descriptions" with the elsanna fluff in your heads. Of course, constructive comments are more than welcome. As long as you don't tell me I'm a horrible person with colourful profanities or bash this holy ship, anything else is good by me.

One last note: I'm so tempted to change the name of my blog to "Ramblings of a (Bitter and Apparently Illiterate) Grad Student". Gosh, I need lunch. Let's have cheese and corn, muahahaha

(This is the April 2015 edited version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 8

"Why do I have to drink at your dorm? Really, Dude, I'd rather be home for the hockey game."

Kristoff's complaints went unheard when Hans just rolled his eyes, "Your suggestion was drinking in front of the lab building. Which is beside Campus Security. Christopher, you sure there is something inside that thick skull of yours?"

"Kristoff," he corrected, "Like you're one to say. You sure you don't have early-onset Alzheimer's?"

"I'm just paying tribute to your slaughter of the language by such horrendous misspelling of a common given name."

"It's not a misspelling you three-year-old bully with a bad hairdo!"

Hans laughed, plopping down on the couch with a six-pack, "Your insults speak for themselves. Lackluster. And here I am repaying a beer with six. This is poor entertainment on your part."

The grad student popped open his can with a single finger and downed it in swift gulps. Kristoff paused on his own mouthful, staring.

"Looks like you're gonna finish all six though."

"Yeah? Then better start catching up, Baby."

"You did not just call me a baby."

"I did. Blond baby."

Hans dodged a fist, flipping the remote in his hand to throw it in Kristoff's face, "Be good and watch your hockey game."

"Only if you'd stop throwing things, Toddler."

Hans shook his head amidst more laughter. Gosh, what had gotten into him to buddy up with this idiot?

"Hey," Kristoff spoke up after an icing call when they awaited the players on screen to skate back the other side of the rink, "You've got something for Elsa?"

Hans nearly spat, "Fuck, you mean the kinda thing you got for Anna? Hell no!"

"Wow, that's quite a reaction though if I were just mistaken," Kristoff passed the kleenex. Hans batted it away.

"Look, I don't know how you got the idea, but if you mean why I'm always targeting her, it's not because I want to show off my man pride or whatever ridiculous idea you have on your mind."

There was another silence and they didn't speak again until the next goal scored on their home team. After a collective, "damn", Kristoff asked, "You know her though?"

"Like before we joined the lab? Yeah."

"How?"

"Orphanage."

Kristoff wondered if he should say sorry, then again, he was also an orphan, just adopted as a kid by the Bjorgmans. Sometimes he even forgot the whole ordeal entirely.

"What was she like?" he asked instead. Hans snorted.

"I'm not gonna make the joke about_ you_ having a thing for her," he let his voice trail, then stiffened its tone, "But if you're asking for a reason for my actions, you won't get any. Place me where you want on your personal concrete alignment of good or bad, but if you're struggling to place her somewhere on that line too, do it based on your own understanding. I have nothing to offer."

Kristoff craned his neck up for a full view of the rough, off-white ceiling before slumping back down to watch the game. Whatever. Anna wasn't a kid. She knew what she was doing.

Let it go, right? Ha!

"Treat me to pizza, Boss. From Pascal's," he grumbled to Hans. Greens nearly rolled off the handsome face.

"State his theorem then I'd think about it."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the lab:

"Holy Rosalind Franklin Above, it actually opened!? Nearly ran my face flat!"

Such was Anna's shock when the door opened for her. She just stood there gawking, mouth hung open from whatever mumble jumble she just spouted till she noticed saliva would soon be dripping out if she didn't shut it. An equally dazed Elsa finally snapped to the reality of what she was doing and hurriedly tried to slam the door shut again with a hushed, "Sorry".

"Oh, no, no, no, no, I didn't mean it that way!" Anna yelled just in time to slip her hand between the door and its frame, shoving it wide open again, "Keep it open! Please! I can't get enough of your amazingly beautiful, pretty, dazzling, splendorous face...my God, I did not just pull that out of my embarrassing internal thesaurus..."

It was Elsa's turn to look flustered, her snow white skin all of a sudden flushed a mad red. Silence reigned while both of them just stared at each other, one wondering how blue could blue eyes get, another amazed that there was such a hue between blue and green making the most-prized aquamarines shy in comparison. Then both of them found exactly how cheesy their entirely irrelevant soliloquies were and started looking anywhere but at said pair of eyes facing them.

_Say something, you inadequate human being. Remember the last time you talked to another member of your species? Like your collaborator?_

Elsa resisted the urge to plummet her face into her palm upon this line of thought. Right, the collaborator she considered a weasel because he looked so much like one and even had a matching name. Last time she saw him she was gowned up in a bunny suit, mask and goggles and all, giddy from organic solvents that filled the class 1000 clean room as evenly as the nauseating yellow lighting. She even giggled at his corny joke about spinning wafers and UFOs, saying something along the lines of, "would be nice if the vacuum failed and it made an emergency landing on your head."

Elsa decided to keep her jaws tightly clamped and instead redirected Anna's attention to Olaf the Printer where her conference abstract was freshly printed. Thank goodness Olaf didn't throw a fit about warm hugs, because she certainly wasn't in the mood to give one at the moment that wouldn't separate his head from his butt, whatever a printer's butt was, or head for that matter.

Anna followed the crisp crunch of paper being unceremoniously ripped out of the printer and continued staring at it till it got shoved onto her chest.

_Can I be more rude than that. And did I just grope my undergrad from behind a piece of paper?_

Elsa's flush turned purple. She quickly mumbled yet another apology before scurrying back into the safe confines of her dark room and plopping herself down by the biosafety cabinet in desperate hopes the groaning fan could somehow outcompete the profanities now running through her head to describe her own stupidity. Anna was torn between what she should be looking at now, the paper in her hand, or the slim figure of her grad student washed in a gentle white glow, because God forbid that gorgeous length of platinum blonde silk merging onto stereotypical lab attire was killing her.

And then Elsa chewed her lip. And then she pulled out a P1000 and jabbed it into a box of P2 tips. And then she smashed her head on the glass pane in frustration, smudging blue marker over her flawlessly curved forehead and started cursing herself. At about that time, Anna decided it was better to read black letters on boring wood products instead to save herself from cuteness overload.

"So? Oh, this is an abstract? For a conference? International Creative Genomics?" Anna asked when she recognized what was printed. The way she said it made it clear she had at least heard of the conference, if not considered it, making Elsa bite her lip again and fervently swish her CHO cells in its flask.

"You don't have to come," she managed to spew out the words, then mentally slapped herself for the poorly-worded statement, "I mean, with me. You can go with someone else if you want."

"That's not it!" Anna exclaimed, plopping down on the chair by the FACS machine and wheeling herself over, nearly colliding with Elsa's back. Gosh the floor was slippery. "I want to come with you! Heck, I didn't even know you would be willing to do it! I was just going to ask and now you already have an abstract and you say you want to come, it's fantastic! Wait, did you say I can come? I can come, right?"

In exhilaration, the Ginger grabbed hold of the older girl's shoulders and nearly yanked her off her seat. "Yes! Yes!" the grad student cried just so the undergrad would stop shaking her and leave her balanced precariously on the chair and not mopping the floor with her face instead. Wasn't she already being obvious enough? How excitable could Anna be?

"My God..." Anna spluttered one last time before going completely silent. Elsa really wanted to slam her head back onto the glass by now. She didn't know how to handle inducing an overjoyed stroke on her undergrad, seriously!

But this...hum in her body, this resonance from the feelings radiating off others that she alone could detect, the harmony of their shared happiness awoke all her childhood memories of smiles and cuddles, warm and gentle swirls of something flowing deep within her chest.

To think the useless person she was could bring back something so wonderful, it scared her, but it urged her to grasp onto and hold close this beauty she had brought into someone else's, and in turn her own life.

_Except this must be a dream! How can I deserve such a thing? I must be missing something. There must be a line in small letters on the back of the contract, an expiry date on the enzyme I bought, something that will take it all away!_

"You said you wanted to talk," Elsa finally mustered enough courage to say this, "About the conference?"

"Oh, yeah. Actually..." Anna poked her fingers together, "Hans wanted to go with me. Not alone! With Kristoff too."

_There, just as I thought. I should be happy enough that she even considered going with me...too. Who'd want to be alone with a socially-challenged nutcase? And what kind of crazy has infested this hollow head of mine to want to be alone with her anyway? For what? For leeching off her normal happiness because I'm so incapable of it myself? What do I know about happiness? I just know how to destroy it for everybody._

While her mind pointed out the logic she followed all her life, her traitorous heart blissfully ignored it and continued pounding on, in-beat with a sappy pop song. It was celebrating her good tactic at besting the enemy at his own game. Save it, Hans, even if Anna decided to come with you on the conference, you wouldn't have her all to yourself. Game's on, Bastard.

For the first time, Elsa wondered if she were schizophrenic, because she could totally picture her inner angel battling its counterpart demon at the bottom of her gut. It left her shaking so bad the pipette tip couldn't even jab into the microwell after three tries.

"Elsa?" Anna called, a little worried when she noticed Trypan Blue splattered over the metal bench, "You okay?"

That seemed to do it for the older girl who finally returned to the present. In exasperation, she just ejected the tip randomly at the corner and put down her micropipette.

_I'm supposed to be her direct supervisor. It doesn't matter who she'll be with when attending this conference. My job is to ensure she can go and make good use of the experience for her future career._

"Scoot over," she turned and said to the redhead who slowly nodded and wheeled herself aside, revealing the trash can. Elsa peeled her gloves off, tossed them, and reached over for the touchpad of the laptop, opening a file on her desktop. "You need a travel grant, "she continued while the file printed, "To get one, you need scientific contributions. If you can't churn out papers quickly enough, it means you present posters, as many as you can."

Anna slipped out the room to grab the list, "No kidding, ten of them?"

"Undergraduate Research Day, Genetics Research Day, Microbiology and Immunology Departmental Retreat, Frederick Sanger Symposium, Arendelle Genomics Conference..."

"Okay, I get it. I'm not illiterate, believe it or not..." she groaned. This was crazy. It would mean a non-stop submission of abstracts, even though the chance of rejection for these local events was pretty low. Still, she wondered how many times she could reuse a poster till the organizers told her to lay it off.

"And that's what your high school student is for," another aside slipped from Elsa.

"What?"

"Rapunzel. Teaching experience. To sharpen up your CV."

"Oh?" Anna answered without really putting her mind into it, following Elsa with her eyes instead. The blonde had returned to work, this time with much better concentration as she could see the multichannel fly across the plate, filling it evenly without a single bubble in the wells. It was amazing technique, she realized, and boring as it was to most people, it completely entranced her.

The awkwardness was gone. When engrossed in what she loved, Elsa was stunningly beautiful. There was something attractive about people skilful in a particular task, even if the task were mundane as counting cells. Lifting her gaze from Elsa's hands, she looked into the icy eyes trained onto the task as though wanting to freeze it and dissect every micron section with cutting-edge histology. Then she stared at the delicate face that framed them, showing a determination ever so solid and unwavering. She noticed this was the first time she had surveyed her vice-boss so closely, so carefully - the first time she noticed the light blush barely concealing scarce freckles dusting the high cheeks, or hints of purple eyeshadow and dark mascara highlighting those deep sockets holding the clear blue orbs. Was it just her weird musings, or did Elsa actually long for someone to notice her presence? Or perhaps Elsa merely wanted to feel good about herself, but did so in such a subtle way because she felt an unexplainable guilt about this self-empowerment?

Anna didn't get it. But she certainly wanted to find the answer.

"And your grades," Elsa broke the trance, "You're lucky the grant application deadline is in two months. If you don't pull up your average by the end of the term, your chances are as good as spontaneous formation of diamond on the bench top."

"Well, if you buy me a diamond ring..." _What in the world did I just say? I did _not_ just flirt with her!?_

Anna couldn't convince herself. She dipped her blushing head to the ground. Damn Kristoff. All his fault for drawing parallels between the only two grad students in their lab.

"Umm...if I can afford a lottery ticket with my stipend?"

_Oh God, and did Elsa just flirt back!?_

Now there were two blushing heads dipped to the ground.

"Err...anyways, I got to go..." Anna muttered. She couldn't exactly trust her eyes when she saw Elsa stare back into the hood and absentmindedly pipette a ml of bleach into the opened epi on her rack. Sure enough, the blonde immediately swore under her breath and slammed her head on the glass again.

_Oh my...can she get any cuter?_

_And I did not just think that. Especially when she looks so much like a dejected puppy!_

"You gonna go or not?" _asked the dejected puppy._

_Can I just hug her?_

Without thinking too much about whether or not it was appropriate, Anna reached over and curled her arms around the slim shoulders, her sleeves sliding across matching coarse fabric with a crisp sound.

They froze.

"When I come back, please open the door for me?" was all Anna managed to whisper before pulling back, wanting to regret her behaviour but couldn't get her heart to do it. Rather, she was starting to regret not petting the perfectly slicked platinum bangs jutting out the back of an equally-perfect skull. They had been so soft against her chin - she could nuzzle her nose in them forever.

Only when said head nodded did she catch herself staring, and it wasn't even the first time tonight. In fact, she had probably been staring most of the time.

"Umm...yeah...very good," she responded awkwardly. No, she was not cooing a puppy. Where did that thought come from!? "I...ugh...just am gonna catch Kristoff at Hans' dorm. Got his text that they're drinking there, so...you know...I can tell them I'll be going to the conference with you instead."

The blonde swivelled sharply over so their eyes met. Those blues were opened wide, teeth showing between the gap in her cherry lips.

She was demanding an explanation.

"Well, you know, not like I have anything against Kristoff or Hans submitting the model. I really don't care if they don't even put my name on it. But for this conference, I just want to go with you."

Aside from the sounds of the BSC fan mingled with computer static and whispers of plastic serological pipette wrappers blowing under airflow, all was silent.

Anna escaped to the door, relishing in one last sight of the mysterious dark room now fully revealed to her, the microscope by the doorway, incubators and freezers cuddled to the dark corner, an ancient FACS towering by the edge of the table, cover opened to illuminate the room with a mystical laser glow.

And Elsa was the centerpiece, brighter than those lasers - she made Anna fluoresce in spectrums of the rainbow.

_No, that was totally corny._

"What I mean is," she wondered if she were answering herself or Elsa, but it didn't really matter, "your work is beautiful. I want to be there when you show it to the world."

The door clicked closed and Elsa fervently awaited the next time it'd open.

**End of Chapter 8**


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Thanks Peace Sign Freak, Midori Akiko, Lance58, Luniverse, Erzajane, PhantomGemini, GhostofWintersPast, brunhe, Kid Iccarus, rundownSabEr, GuesT, TheElementHero, Yuiiub, ElsaStoleMyPen, 23deecy, Supremacy of Chaos, SilverOsprey, and the various other guest reviewers for their kind comments. Once again, I'm a totally asocial geek with minimal understanding of human interactions, so feel free to tell me if I'm being overly corny or awkward with the characters. A little awkward is part of the theme, but if it's too much, I'll work to change that. And of course, other concrit or nice comments are welcome too, but do not bash the ship, please! With that...

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 9

Kristoff and Hans had been unexpectedly chill about her decision to submit an abstract with Elsa for the International Creative Genomics Conference. Well, perhaps it was the alcohol.

"Forget it, I wouldn't have wanted to go with this jerk anyway," the burly blond slurred, slamming a hand on his knee when yet another goal scored on their home team. They were already losing five zip.

"And _you_ are just bad luck," Hans returned the jab. He passed a can to Anna, "Sit down and have a drink. Maybe we'd do better with you watching the game."

She couldn't turn down the sparkling smile so she sat down on the ancient but well-kept faux leather couch. She had not intended to stay much longer after her announcement, but the couch was nicely textured, cool to the touch yet warmed up nicely as she sat. A few minutes in and she found herself curled up against the armrest, feet shoving Kristoff's fat ass over towards Hans' side.

"What?" He grumbled accusingly.

"You're taking up all the space!"

"Can't you see there's this nasty little critter beside me?" He complained, pointing at his vice-boss. Anna sighed.

"This is not grade school. Now shove over, I can't see the puck!"

"Oh come on, we're losing this bad already and that idiot ref had to call a high-stick. What, you expect us to make a come-back shorthanded?"

"We must have faith!"

"I thought you were atheist..."

"Now why are you making an assumption about-"

"And they score!" Hans cut everybody off as he exclaimed with arms flung up against the back of the couch. Anna reached over and they smashed their hands together in a high five.

"Now _I_ am good luck," she exclaimed triumphantly at Kristoff who just rolled his eyes off his forehead.

"You've got to come watch the games more often," Hans offered. The blond glared at him.

"Bet you just want to pull her into another conspiracy of yours..."

* * *

So that was how Anna found herself at Hans' dorm every game night alongside Kristoff, sometimes in the company of Rapunzel too, like today because it was an away game in the East so it started early. She still had no luck with Elsa, or the two senior staff who weren't much fans of the sport.

"So you tried to get Elsa to come too? Seriously?" was Kristoff's first comment when the game started. Rapunzel just smacked him unnecessarily hard on the back.

"Anna's just adventurous, I like it!"

As adventurous as Rapunzel dating the guy who stole dish detergent from her dad's lab? Anna didn't think so. Honestly, of their building's many strange tales, Eugene's had got to be one of Anna's favourite - it was the story of a man's amazing survival skills while working with a poor PI, all the excuses he came up with to borrow reagents without returning, to the point where he found himself stealing bar soap. Well, that wasn't the point, but certainly, Elsa was nowhere as legendary as Rapunzel's boyfriend - that was for sure.

"It's not called adventurous when Elsa can totally do this socializing thing."

Two pairs of sceptical eyes pierced her head. At least Hans was decent enough to stare at the TV screen instead.

"Okay, fine, maybe she can use a bit of work, but she's improving..."

"You mean your relationship with her. Not our relationship with her," Kristoff corrected.

"Look, how is that different?"

"It so is."

"Really?" Anna stared at Kristoff who didn't even shift from his seat, then turned around to look at Rapunzel instead who still had her big smile on while simply shrugging, "I think you just don't tell her good jokes. Breaks the ice quite literally in my case."

"Well, tell me about it, your good jokes..." Kristoff dead-panned. Rapunzel, on the other hand, seemed interested, more so than the game at any rate because she had clearly shifted her attention onto Anna's suddenly serious face.

"Last time, it was about diamonds, but that was corny."

"Well, if even you say it's corny..."

"Shush, Kristoff! That's why I'm telling you about another one! This one is great. Listen."

She moved her butt fully onto the centre of her seat, pulled at her shirt to lose the creases, and coughed.

"So we got the sequences back from the screen and found these mutations that are conferring more specific and efficient enzymatic activity against complement factor C5. We fed them through Rosetta to predict the structures and found these charged amino acids in the active sites..."

"Okay, let's cut the scientific mumble jumble and get to the point here. What's the joke?"

"She was explaining to me about how electrostatic interactions with the substrate might be keeping it in place during proteolytic cleavage. And I was like: 'so the positively-charged lysine dumped the partially negative water oxygen for the substrate? So much for molecular heterosexuality...'"

Kristoff smacked his head into his palms, "That was a bad joke, Anna."

"You should've been more obvious about wanting to form a stable covalent bond-"

Rapunzel was cut off by Anna's hand on her mouth when Hans suddenly turned over and blinked.

"What bonds are we talking about now?"

"Covalent-" Kristoff answered, but was smacked by Anna for it.

"He means government bonds," she replied with a smile before sharply turning to Kristoff, "Don't you dare elaborate, Neon. Go excite yourself!"

"Sorry. I don't get it," Rapunzel noted when her mouth was finally free to move. Hans nodded thoughtfully.

"Probably a reference to the noble gas. Doesn't form bonds, but fluoresces red when excited."

"Oh God, that was a good one," Rapunzel applauded with Hans. Kristoff shifted his gaze to the ceiling.

"I think you ought to google 'joke of the day' for reference instead."

* * *

With this particular suggestion in mind, Anna absentmindedly poked at her android phone while traversing the dimly-lit hallways of their lab early one morning. She had been coming in earlier and staying later lately in preparation for sending off the first of her local conference abstracts, this one for the Microbiology and Immunology Departmental Retreat that was scheduled to take place in two weeks, but admittedly, the 'jokes of the day' kept her up throughout the night in excitement, so she was extra-early today to tell it to her expected audience, with a nerdy twist of course.

It had already been like this for the past week, but every time Anna came across the dark room door, she still couldn't help smiling a little at the fact that it was no longer locked. Slipping her hand around the handle, she pulled it down and pushed open the door.

As usual, it was dimly lit inside even when nothing was acquiring on the microscope and there weren't FACS samples waiting to be sorted on the flow cytometer. After a week of maintenance on the ancient BD Calibur, the leak had been resolved and its cover pulled on once more to cover the lasers inside, leaving the room only lit by the fluorescent lighting of the BSC. Today, it was quite empty, the metal bench cleared of everything save the waste bottle and three boxes of tips. An unfilled biohazard bag hung from the green lab tape that attached it to the back, further indicating that Elsa had yet to start any actual work for the day. It seemed that she had dosed off on her seat while waiting for the fan to reach its operational state. Contrary to safety recommendations, she had removed her shoes and tugged her sock-covered feet beneath her while she leaned into the side of the mid back chair. She was now dipping precariously to the edge of it, about to slam her forehead on the BSC's glass pane should she slip any further.

Upon this realization, Anna tried to pull Elsa up as gently as she could so the older girl wouldn't jolt awake from the motion. She was half-successful, as Elsa's forehead stopped a centimetre away from the glass and she was plopped back to her original position at the centre of her seat, but somehow the asleep Elsa kept trying to lean on something, for comfort or something else Anna didn't know, leading her to slide off the other side of the chair instead.

"This wouldn't do..." Anna muttered to herself. She pulled out another chair from the desk and sat down next to Elsa who eventually dropped onto her right shoulder.

She went rigid. Okay, so this was awkward. What would she do if Elsa continued to sleep on her? (Okay, that came out totally wrong.) Should she just stay until the blonde awoke or should she wake her up eventually? Judging by how Elsa's brows remained furrowed, jaws clenched, hands tightly clasped behind her raised knees, Anna decided she probably had a lot of stress to sleep off. So first, she slipped the extra lab coat off the back of her chair and laid it on top of both of them, then after another minute of staring at the features of the sleeping girl, she couldn't quite help bringing her thumb onto Elsa's eyebrow and smoothed it out under her touch.

Elsa made a slight hum under the movement, shifting more weight onto her when she brought her hands upwards and clung onto her sleeve like a cat. As much as it looked absolutely adorable, it was a little sad, seeing as she seemed to have done it with a strong sense of insecurity. It freed strands of white gold from her braid to fall onto Anna's strawberry blonde. As though to stave off her previous line of thought, the younger girl focused on the pale locks, brushed it with a finger, then proceeded to giggle as she wrapped it around her own.

"Beautiful," she whispered to her own handiwork, but before she had much time to admire it, Elsa suddenly thrashed her head to the other side and slammed into the BSC, towing Anna along their entwined hair. Luckily it wasn't tied very tightly, but Anna could still feel the pull on her neck signalling a minor whiplash.

"Wow, what just happened here!?" she exclaimed, pulling the now wide-awake Elsa back onto her chair. At least the collision wasn't strong enough to break the glass. It did leave a painful red mark on the blonde's forehead though.

"Anna? What are you doing here?" she asked, still rubbing where it hurt. Anna giggled.

"Wanted to tell you a joke I read last night. Well, a nerdy modified version. Then I found you asleep so I just waited. Didn't know you had such bad bed manners!"

Wait...she was pretty sure she worded it wrong.

"Or sleep manners?" she tried again, but Elsa's gawking expression still displayed nothing but confusion.

"Or...whatever they call it. I didn't know you'd be formula one racing in your sleep and crashing before you wake up to induce this...whiplash on me."

There was silence. At first, Anna thought Elsa was just trying to process her incoherent speech as usual, but that wasn't it...

_"I wish the rain would take me up the skies where I belong with the only ones to ever care."_

_\- You don't need to leave. These paper airplanes can reach you from here, carrying with them the hope entrusted to me._

_She clutched the paper to her chest. No, this couldn't be real, it couldn't be real._

_"Hope is like the sun. It sets everyday only to leave me more afraid of the dark than if it never existed."_

_\- But you know the sun will rise again. It has been promised to you. Dawn is near._

_She was trembling, but she managed to turn around to face the door she hadn't opened in months._

_"I know! I know I'll live to see another day! That's the problem!"_

_\- How is it a problem when you're keeping me alive?_

_She wrenched the door open and ran down the dark, empty halls. The night was deep. Aside the sound of her footsteps, the pounding of her heart, nothing else could be heard._

_"I want to hold you together, but I can't. I can't even stop myself from falling apart."_

_\- I once thought I didn't just understand others. I absorbed them. I am a product of all the pieces of others' hearts given to me. Then one by one they all left. Please, I beg you, don't break me further!_

_Plop, plop, her bare feet drummed on the wooden floorboards. Each tap was a dagger thrust deeper and deeper beneath her skin. The self-hate resonated, out of control. The walls were closing in, she was crying for help, but they wouldn't stop._

_"I want to live, my friend, but it's so hard you hide at a distance from what little of my feelings you can sense from there. Imagine what I have to go through. I can't hold it back anymore. I want to be free!"_

_She had no response for those words. She knew they were true. She was a coward._

_Soon, the last piece of paper arrived in her hands, the one she clutched now as she stood outside the room she should've visited long ago._

_The monster was in sight. It would swallow her._

_She stepped inside._

_"Please...save me."_

_The curtains were swaying from the sides of the opened window. Moonlight streamed in to set the hundreds of white paper airplanes aglow. A single one stood out from the rest, stained the deep red of scarlet._

_No. Please._

_No!_

"That wasn't what was in my dream..." she whispered.

Anna noticed a wet trail down Elsa's cheek. Maybe the blonde didn't even notice it, because she was already forcing a smile. But it left Anna speechless.

"So what's the joke? The one you read last night?" Elsa dismissed the earlier topic. Anna had yet to recover, but she was trying - she knew she couldn't talk about what bothered Elsa right now.

Not now.

But one day...

"Oh! Yes...well...ugh...I need props, so wait a minute."

Anna stepped out to fetch a squirt bottle. She set it on the table, grinning at the unexpected appropriateness of her pre-planned stunt. She softened her expression and made two fake coughs before she continued the lines she had previously recited, "So," she pointed to the bottle, "methanol, here, was happily walking down the street when a bad guy came up and kidnapped the hydroxyl group."

She ripped the OH off the label and moved on, "The remaining methano group was really upset and didn't know what to do until uranium and nitrogen decided to come along and pat him on the shoulder..."

She wrote U and N on another piece of tape and stuck it just before the remaining Me, "See? He didn't have to worry, because..."

"There's still U N Me?" Elsa read, then finally dissolved into gentle chuckles, "That's lame, Anna. Did you modify that from a cheesy pickup line?"

"Maybe I did?" she said, scratching the back of her head. On second thought, it was lame. Wait, did she just admit..."Well, no, I didn't mean that, but you know...like...I just wanted to say I'd be here, if you want someone not just for free labour, but like...as a friend...maybe."

"A friend?"

Was Elsa shocked? Was this too personal? Anna already withheld the urge to brush away the tear on Elsa's face, but was this too much too?

She didn't know. It was ironic, because all her life she wanted to be around people, but when finally given the opportunity she didn't know what was appropriate.

Then Elsa's seriousness cracked into deep laughter.

"Of course, Anna. I'd love to. Be friends, I mean."

Really? Really?

Her lips curved upwards subconsciously. She was probably showing teeth and gums but she could hardly care.

It was different from her relationships with Kristoff or any of the others, but she couldn't quite figure out what was it. Maybe people-people connections were like onions, they were layered, and some just managed to connect in more levels in a very mysterious way she couldn't understand. And this connection with Elsa was best described as..._heartwarming_?

Whatever it was, they both knew it and they sat there grinning about it for a long time.

**End of Chapter 9**


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Thanks FrozenFanatic, theBringerofWar, 23deecy, Lance58, veroniqeu, Luniverse, SonderAndLife, GhostofWintersPast, brunhe, TheElementHero, PhantomGemini, Nayal, rundownSabEr, Supremacy of Chaos, Yuiiub, Kid Iccarus, GuesT, and the other guests for their kind comments! As we've finally reached chapter ten, I'm planning on a revision/rewrite of the earlier chapters, probably taking out some of the awkward parts and filling in on things that were confusing, etc. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them behind, and if anybody has the extra time to beta the edited chapters, that'd make me super-duper happy as well. Alright, so as always...

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 10

Friendship was a foreign concept to Anna until she met Kristoff and the gang, but now that she had initiated a friendship with Elsa, she recontemplated the meaning of that word.

Being friends with Kristoff and the others was easy. They had their hockey nights at Hans' dorm, the occasional lunch and movie on the weekends, and sometimes a hike up the mountains to make good use of the remaining autumn. Sure, they had their awkward moments, like all the times she kicked Kristoff off the couch, or when Rapunzel threatened to tie them all up with her hair, only to realize she had long cut it short, but none of those moments were as uncomfortable as this.

It was another day spent in the Winters Lab dark room, another day Anna found herself staring at the small, or as she liked to call it, "flimsy" back of her blonde grad student. Or maybe this thick silence was the opposite of uncomfortable - she admitted she quite enjoyed it, just watching how this seemingly frail figure could conduct herself so gracefully while flying a multichannel across a 1536-well plate as though the puny wells didn't blind her eyes (Anna could hardly handle the 384s herself). But perhaps it was the reason, or the lack thereof, for why she liked this that discomforted her.

The sudden swivel of Elsa's chair alerted Anna to get back to her work. She tried her best to look professional, snapping straight up only to hit the microscope's oculars with her nose.

"Ow!" she couldn't hold back a cry. Elsa quirked an eyebrow in amusement.

"You don't need to bother pretending. I can tell you are procrastinating either way."

"I so was not procrastinating!"

"Oh yeah? Let me see."

The older girl wheeled over on her chair and dipped the oculars to her level as she continued, "Took you ten minutes and this thing is still so out of focus?"

"I..." _All your fault that I couldn't concentrate all this time! _"I wanted to make sure I wouldn't slam the objectives onto the slide!"

"There's enough distance between the lens and your sample to fit your entire hand! Maybe that's the problem, huh?"

Anna groaned, "The sample was misbehaving...it deserved the cold shoulder."

Elsa rolled her eyes before returning to the oculars. A couple swift turns of the coarse focus, and another couple on the fine brought the objectives up to the proper position, "And you're the one misbehaving. That sample is so obviously over-stained. Did you do a proper wash?"

"I gently stroked the yeast babies with my finger and rubbed it with Dawn, you know, like how they save ducks from oil spills..."

Elsa caught Anna's sarcasm and playfully shoved her in the shoulder. She giggled, proceeding to shove back with such force the blonde nearly fell off her chair.

"Somebody needs to build up a bit of body mass..." Anna chided. Elsa just shook her head.

"Well, somebody needs to be less violent."

"Fine. I concede. We should balance out our traits by horizontal gene transfer through conjugation."

_Wait a second...I did not just say that._

_Don't they call this...bacterial sex!?_

She wanted to plummet her forehead into her hands, but those darned gloves were in the way. Not that such a gesture would help at all, she thought to herself. Why the hell did those inappropriate jokes flood her mind whenever she was with Elsa? Perhaps it was how her reaction was so damned cute...

...like that! Just look at the way Elsa instinctively wanted to do another eye roll, but paused midway upon realizing the implications (she was a bit slow, but slow in an absolutely endearing manner) and flushed three shades darker than her usual snow white complexion!

Oh God. Anna knew she had a strange taste when it came to what was cute. Heck, she thought budding yeasts were next to the cutest things on Earth, well...when they budded at any rate. But she swore most people would probably agree that Elsa was the epitome of cuteness any way you looked at her - she was nearly dying from an overdose of her adorableness!

"Err...since your mind is obviously preoccupied with other matters...you can probably go. You know...it'll take you forever to finish this poster and we'd never make it to the retreat if you were working on it alone, so I can just stay and finish up and submit it for printing before it's too late..." Elsa ranted, not even looking at her. She was already spinning down the yeast for a wash, set on taking more pictures on the microscope all by herself.

"Hell no! My poster! My work! You go finish your screen and I'll handle the colourful fluorescence imaging figure," she complained, hovering over the microfuge so she could snatch back the tube after it was done spinning. Elsa just sighed and returned to the BSC, leaving the silence hanging once more.

In the end, Anna did prepare a satisfactory sample, but Elsa still had to help with taking the actual photo. Maybe she was just inexperienced, or she was lacking in artistic sense, but she soon realized making a good scientific poster actually involved a lot of aesthetics in the figures and schematics as well as the layout of everything. It took about thirty tries and near photobleaching of her fluorophores before they managed to capture the crystal clear accumulation of their target protein on the bud necks. But wow, was it worth it. Beautiful things were just so beautiful she could look at it all day.

"I'm going to send it off if you're happy with it..." Elsa deadpanned. Anna grinned. Not like she didn't notice Elsa too staring at the picture with a goofy smile the past three minutes.

"Don't send it off for me, send it off because _you're _so happy with it."

Elsa glared but did as she was told, all the while grumbling, "I'm just happy we made it in time for it to be printed. The retreat is the day after tomorrow."

Anna draped an arm over her shoulder with a little too much force that she sent Elsa's face a precarious inch from crashing into the glass panel, "I'm excited."

"Don't be. It's a retreat. Over a long weekend. Somewhere in the middle of a forest, forced into interactions with so-called fellow members of our species over lots of alcohol and not-so-fun-or-intelligent games..."

"I signed up for the pipette-tip shooting contest! And the egg drop!"

As though proving the point that she didn't need to know that, Elsa shut her eyes and lowered her head onto the glass. Anna laughed.

"I saw your name under the epi-rockets and squirt bottle fight."

"What!?" Elsa looked up, clearly surprised, "What in the world are those?"

Anna brought her gloveless finger over the touch-screen and lazily scrolled down the page on her ipad, reading, "Epi-rockets is a game in which you engineer a 1.5ml eppendorf tube to fly using various common materials as fuel. The one that can fly the farthest distance wins."

"Stupid..." Elsa muttered, then exhaled deeply, "But bearable."

"Squirt bottle fight is a capture the flag game in which you can shoot down the enemy using a squirt bottle filled with orange Kool-Aid kindly donated by the Dunbroch Lab."

Elsa took off her gloves just to cup her forehead, clearly not looking forward to being shot by Kool-Aid. Anna patted her back, "Hey, at least you aren't in the Fixer-Upper contest. The explanation says it's a fashion show in which contestants are dressed in creative outfits made from lab recyclables. Hans and Kristoff are on it!"

If she heard right, Elsa snorted, "I'll look forward to that."

"Hell yes! I'm looking forward to all of those! But anyways...I'd better get going, else I'd miss the last train home."

Anna busily packed her ipad away, and only when she was zipping up her bag did she notice Elsa staring at her, hands held tightly together on her lap. When their eyes met, the cold blues averted themselves slightly so they stared straight at the door behind her. Anna kept training her eyes on the blonde till the older girl finally shifted a little and attempted to speak, mouth opening and closing several times as she tried.

"You look like a goldfish, Elsa..."

"I...I do not!" Elsa complained in such a hurried manner she nearly bit her tongue. It only made her blush even more, highlighting the faint freckles on her cheeks.

"Don't worry. I think it's cute," Anna kept teasing.

The widened ice orbs took in the gleaming teals for a second before she found it increasingly difficult to hold a gaze and stared down at the linoleum floor instead.

"I am twenty-four and you do not call twenty-four-year-olds cute."

"Yes, we do. Why not?"

"It's...I don't know...not proper!"

"Yes, Mother..." Anna muttered, picking up her bag to leave with a grin still hanging on her face.

Elsa followed her though, and just before she was out the door, she called out, "Wait!"

"What is it, Mother?"

Normally, she would make an exaggerated sigh and cross her arms over her ample chest while shaking her head, but she was so embarrassed by Anna's attention now that she couldn't say what she had wanted to, "...you know...well...I mean, you should lay it off about the mother thing. I'm at best the age of your sister."

_What does that matter? I did not mean to say something stupid like that!_

"Fine, Sister. Good night, Good Sister."

"No! I mean..." _Just say the truth, Elsa! Why are you such a damn coward when it comes to expressing your sorry self!? _"I'm...ugh...it's my responsibility...no, I don't mean you are just a responsibility, but you know...I think...I'm concerned..."

"What?" Anna looked confused at her incomprehensible string of words, "Okay. Serious. I'm fine with whatever you'd want to say, Elsa, so please just say it. In my face. I won't mind."

Oh, Anna...now that she had devoted her full _serious_ attention to Elsa, the pressure was even more overwhelming. Elsa imagined herself standing at the top of a podium being crowned Queen in front of a large audience. She was so positively sure she'd screw up in some ridiculous way like freezing the sceptre and accidentally snapping it like a twig.

What an imagery, even when she deemed herself a realist by all measures.

But Anna was patient enough to wait for her internal struggle to die down. Finally, Elsa took a deep breath and blabbed, "It'd be dangerous for you to take the train at this hour I think you should just stay on campus I know you'd probably be fine on your own but why don't you just think of it as helping me get back to my dorm safely?"

If the joke were real and they were sisters in some parallel universe, then their nervous rambling must be hereditary.

"If I understood correctly...did you just..."

Elsa didn't wait for her to finish, taking her hand, throwing down her own lab coat before pulling both of them out the room and locking the door behind her. "You will not take the train this late at night...ever again."

Anna nodded rigidly, a little surprised, but interestingly almost elated at this protectiveness. Well, yes, they did have a superior/subordinate relationship at work, and their friendship shared a similar senior/junior dynamic that was at times even sisterly in nature, but this blatant concern Elsa was showing tonight...it warmed her up a little on the inside.

"So you're letting me stay at your dorm room tonight?"

The delayed reaction set in and Elsa was redder than ever, "Well...if...you'd like...or...I don't know...you can stay in the library instead, as long as you're safe."

Anna snorted, "It's not finals week. Who'd want to stay overnight in a library!? You have cable TV? I'd love to watch the rerun for tonight's game I missed."

Her steps felt so light as they descended the stairs leading out the building into the darkness. The full moon dangled as a centerpiece in the skies, shining a softer white compared to the fluorescent tubes they had in the lab. Under the wash of this natural glow, Elsa's skin and hair seemed to merge into one, ethereal marble tinted in majestic night blue. That usual coldness she emitted was all gone. For once, she looked so young and lively, the eyes that always mirrored ice shards reflected Anna's image like a warm, summer pond. It was at this moment that Anna realized her heart was skipping alongside her steps. What was this sensation? It was late autumn yet why did it seem like her body and mind were stuck in mid March, desperately yearning for spring instead?

"What's wrong, Anna?"

"I don't know..." she muttered absentmindedly before even registering what was said, "I mean, I don't know the way."

"It's the same building as Hans' place. That's where all the grad students' dorms are located."

"Oh? Really? Then..." this awkwardness was killing her, "I'll race you there!"

She darted away in escape, leaving a not-so-athletically-inclined grad student trailing after her. Serves her right, Anna thought, this was payback for last time when Elsa ran off after her colloquium presentation. By the time they reached the dorm building, Elsa was bent over, trying to catch her breath while Anna hammered her hand on Elsa's "flimsy" back.

"You...are...killing me..." Elsa managed to cough out the words between gasps for oxygen. Anna withdrew.

"Whoops! Sorry. Bad habit I caught from Kristoff."

Elsa frowned, but it was impossible to tell if she was just being playful or if she was really upset. Well, either way, it seemed it might be impossible for her to make it up the stairs to the third floor unassisted.

"Here, give me that," Anna pulled off the bag slung over Elsa's shoulder and propped it on her own, "And your hand."

Too tired to complain, the blonde lazily lifted her right arm and Anna flung it around her neck and started half-hulling her vice boss up the stairs. Crescent Bay, home of the grad students, was one of the older residences on campus - a condominium-styled, salmon-coloured brick building complex overlooking the bay after which it was named. Compared to undergrad residences, where there were only a selection of crammed one-bedroom units or the horrid six-bedroom shared suites, Cresent Bay offered single-occupant furnished studios, such as Hans' place, or the more "luxurious" two-floored one-bedroom private suite, such as Elsa's. Once Anna managed to drag her up the third floor and made their way down the hall to the actual unit, she realized exactly what it meant to have good grades and win multiple scholarships. This place didn't charge over a thousand bucks a month for nothing. It was hugely more spacious than where Hans lived, that was for sure.

"No wonder you don't mind me staying the night. You have like...a living room! And a dining room!"

"All houses have that, Anna..."

"But this is a dorm! Dorms don't constitute houses!"

"And this isn't a house, obviously. It's a miniature mimic of one."

"Heck, I can't even afford one of those stuffy single bedrooms, let alone this!"

As they plopped down on the sleek black sofa and Anna proceeded to turn on the TV, Elsa looked at her with interest.

"Why not rent a room in the shared suites then, if you want to live on campus?"

"I wanted to...I didn't even need my parents to pay, I was gonna use my student loans, but they wouldn't let me."

"Why?"

"They're...well...overprotective," Anna didn't seem to want to elaborate, but eventually did continue when she loosened up while watching the game, "If they had it their way, I'd be living at home. But I'm from a small town so I had to move out for college, and college is...like...the proper thing to do after high school according to them. So I did, but they made sure I was really living alone. No bad roommates. No boyfriends. No nothing but study, because that's why I'm supposedly here. They'd rather pay for my rent than let me live with roommates - it's almost ridiculous. I feel bad though, so I moved out of a basement suite they chose for me in my first-year to my current refurnished garage. It's cheaper, so I can pay for it with the loans..."

She trailed off while her attention shifted fully to the game where their home team player stole the puck and single-handedly brought it across the opponents' blue line. Eased by the way Anna was paying her no heed, Elsa mumbled...

"...everybody has a hard story somewhere along the way, it seems..."

But Anna caught the remark and turned to Elsa, who looked away and pretended to watch the game even when she couldn't find the cursed puck. What was with this game in which big grown men chased a small black object with curved sticks, on skates!? She didn't get it. She just couldn't get it.

And Anna knew it. She knew Elsa was probably uncomfortable because of what she said. Damn it. Who was her to be complaining about her parents, who were a little annoying sometimes but did really love her, and were there for her all throughout her life. From what little she heard occasionally from Hans and Kristoff, she knew they were both orphans...and Elsa was as well. She must've been a bitch to bring this up!

But if she apologized now...wouldn't it hurt even more?

Silence. Awkward silence. Anna hoped against all odds that somebody, anybody, even the opponent would score at this moment to break the tension.

"And Morris brings the puck across the blue line, passes to Smith. Smith...back to Morris, Hastings shoots...and deflected wide..."

Anna sighed to the narration. Maybe she shouldn't rely on luck and actually try to come to know Elsa better by her own effort. She scratched her redhead messy, braids half-hanging there, half tossed out of the orderly plaits. "Um...Elsa? You ever played hockey..."

Turning, she noticed Elsa curled up against the armrest, eyes closed, dark lashes spanning delicate lines across the smooth skin. It was so tempting to run the back of her hand across those supple cheeks, but Anna managed to catch herself. _No, she isn't a baby cousin. She is your damned supervisor! Sure, we're friends, but you don't go stroke a friend's cheek when she's asleep. Gosh, what the hell were you thinking, Anna?_

She decided to focus on the fact that Elsa must be very uncomfortable with her neck bent at a weird angle. To sleep without even eating dinner first...she must've been really tired. Anna nudged gently at her shoulders to wake her up, "Elsa...I know you're tired, but if you want to sleep, you should go back to your room..."

Elsa moaned groggily, but allowed herself to be pulled up by her arm. Anna once again hulled her up another flight of stairs to the bedroom upstairs. It was small, minimally furnished just like the rest of the dorm. Anna placed the blonde on the single-bed and tugged her beneath the white comforter.

Just when she was about to turn and go back downstairs to watch the game, she noticed the only source of colour in this room of grey tones. Snapple jars, empty of their previous contents, were stacked in a pyramid on the bedside table, vibrant from thousands and thousands of small origami objects that formed layers and layers of every shade of green, blue, and purple she had ever seen. Were they cranes? Anna cast a glance over to Elsa where she still lay sleeping deeply, then shifted back to the jars. Unable to resist her overwhelming curiosity, she opened the top one and fished out a paper construction from within.

Only then did she notice the colour came from pencil crayons, drawing very intricate snowflake designs on one side of the paper. The other side was plain white save for short lines of writing in barely legible small print.

_\- Are you flying in the skies? Is it cold up there? I hope it's warm; let the sun graze your wings_

She read from the origami piece, not a crane, but a very small paper airplane.

**End of Chapter 10**


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Thanks Nemrut, EleHime, Nayal, Luniverse (and thank you so much for volunteering to beta revised chapters! Loves ya!), 23deecy, Supremacy of Chaos, Man of Constant Sorrow, brunhe, Lance58, GuesT, el-sana, Yuiiub, TheElementHero, PhantomGemini, GhostofWintersPast, and the guests for their kind comments. Sorry for the delay in updating. RL has been stressful and I needed time to cope. Hopefully things would die down and I'd be able to write more soon. Once again, non-flame comments are welcome. I'd appreciate feedback as well, since I'm currently revising the early chapters of this fic.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 11

"And you had once said I looked like a goldfish. I'm sure there is a word for this. Oh right, you must be a hypocrite!"

Elsa Snow sure was animated today. She glanced at Anna through her rear view mirror and rolled her eyes at the gaping expression of the younger girl.

Elsa had offered to carpool her undergrad to their departmental retreat at the North Mountain Forestry Research Center, but their long ride had been mostly quiet this morning. Anna just clutched onto the fabric-print poster as though her life depended on it, refusing to take the bait.

"So you're giving me the silent treatment?" Elsa asked.

"No! I just don't think I need to answer you when you're clearly teasing me!"

Elsa sighed, "You know what I mean. You want to say something. Something on your mind? A question? Ask away."

Anna swallowed a big gulp of saliva. Sure, she had questions. But she couldn't exactly blab out how she had stolen a peek at Elsa's jars of miniature paper airplanes filled with poetic writing obviously intended for a special someone to read. Her first reaction to the few pieces she read was to hurriedly refold them back to their original shapes, toss them into the jar, and put it back where it belonged. But the more she thought about it, the more...morbid she found the writing to be. Perhaps her first impression was mistaken. Perhaps it wasn't as pure and lovely as originally seemed.

She was worried, and her discomfort seemed to have been noticed by Elsa.

"There's an aura of impending doom emitting from you, Anna," Elsa said, possibly jokingly but sounding far too serious for that intent. Anna sighed.

"Nothing...I'm worried about the pipette-tip shooting contest. I heard Merida from the Dunbroch Lab can shoot her tip into the back of your pipette tip in a display of precision! Imagine me missing the target by ten yards in comparison..."

"Right, and I'll face off against her in the squirt bottle capture-the-flag. At least you won't get orange Kool-Aid on your top. I've brought extras just in case."

"Any as good as what you're wearing now?"

_Shit! What did I just say? I did not just admit to ogling..._

Anna tried as hard as she could to tear her eyes off her vice-boss' attire. It wasn't the first time she'd seen the older girl wear something other than a white coat, but still, each of those times when Elsa wore something else, Anna would be caught staring. When the blonde was not in her hide-in-a-dark-room mood, she was actually quite daring. The tight blue top under her white zip-up hoodie was casual, but flaunted her perfect...chest...and then there were those navy skinny jeans with a bit of a faded pattern down her thighs...how could you not ogle that!? Especially when they connected with them...them _delicious_ hips.

"How do people get their license these days!?" Elsa's frustration at the morning traffic broke Anna's train of thought with a loud honk, "Was he trying to kill himself? You do not just cut into my lane like that. From my blind spot. Not even a signal. This is not a silly little reflex test at Science World, gosh!"

Anna chuckled, a little of it admittedly attributed to her relief that Elsa had been too concentrated on driving to notice how she had been checking her out a moment earlier. But most of it, though, she knew was because Elsa's behaviour was so natural, so ordinary compared to her previous mysterious dark-room persona. Their friendship had really bloomed since the day the door opened. Now, she realized, Elsa was just like any of them. Of course, she was still unique in her own wonderful ways, but she was not so distant that Anna couldn't reach her and hold her in her hands. The thought of their mutual connection made her grin subconsciously.

"Now what, Anna? You still giggling over the prospect of me drowned in Kool-Aid, or my immature rambles over other drivers?"

"Well..." Anna's voice trailed off, "Both are quite cute in my opinion."

"Cute..." Elsa snorted, replying flatly, "You seem to enjoy my embarrassment..."

"Don't we all enjoy seeing that from our bosses?"

"And your boss is Brad, not me. Our boss. And he's off dancing with a garland of Hawaiian flowers over his bare belly while we're here suffering a trip to a dank forest on a good long weekend."

"I do agree it would be fun seeing Dr. Winters in a dress of recyclables," Anna answered. Elsa shook her head a little with a teasing smile on her face.

"Naive, My Dear. Naive," she muttered, "Profs didn't get their PhDs for nothing. They're skilled masters of manipulation. They will invent some excuse to miss out the morning games which they know would turn out as an annual lab slave revolt. Fergus Dunbroch is the only one dumb enough to get a faceful of pie every year. It has evolved into a tradition. You won't miss it."

* * *

And indeed, when they pulled up to the driveway of the campground at North Mountain, the ritual had already started. The big man sidling down the parking lot, chased by students with cream pies, was undoubtedly Fergus himself. His wife/lab manager, Elinor, was holding her fingers to her forehead in exasperation while his famed undergrad, Merida, laughed so loudly her voice echoed down the valley.

Elsa parked by Eugene Fitzherbert's car. He was driving Rapunzel and some other Corona Lab members who would undoubtedly tag along with them seeing as they were assigned the same building as the Winters and Dunbroch Labs. By the time they made it uphill on the pebble path and up stairs leading to their two-storey wooden cabin, they had spotted Hans, Kristoff, Gerda, and Kai. Kristoff tossed a key in Anna's direction.

"Your room. Upstairs, 203. Has a big queen-sized bed facing a lake view. It's fabulous, I assure you."

"So it's a double?" She asked, catching the key. There weren't any clear room assignments, each lab being allocated a single room per staff and a double between every two students. She glanced between Gerda and Elsa, the latter turned a little away to hide a quickly reddening face.

"I don't mind sharing a room with you, Anna," Gerda said much to Elsa's shock. The blonde snapped back in their direction and opened her mouth to speak, loudly, but the intention was thrown out the metaphorical window when she found herself barely able to raise her voice above a mouse's squeak.

"I...don't mind either. I mean...Gerda is a staff member...so the single room is hers, really..."

"Even though Brad would room with somebody else every year to give you your personal space?" Hans made a snide little comment under his breath. His limes briefly met Elsa's blues, but their staring contest was quickly interrupted by Anna wrapping an arm around Elsa's to pull her into the cabin.

"Great! Let's check out our room then!"

Elsa was too weak to protest. She swore her legs turned into jelly.

* * *

Anna was likewise not immune to the embarrassment of their current situation. In fact, she made sure she stared straight ahead as they ascended the stairs to the second floor so that Elsa would not see how her face was burning - the reason for which she'd rather not know. Okay, so she did admit to Elsa being the most adorable little...kitten, sleeping in a little curled up ball and all, and Anna couldn't say she didn't look forward to seeing such a spectacle again. It was, however, most inappropriate to blush like a mad idiot because of this, which was exactly what she was doing now.

Luckily, the awkwardness of spending quality alone-time in the room was eased by the beauty that met them when they opened the door. It wasn't a large room by any means, just big enough to fit the bed and two bedside cabinets with matching lamps atop of each. A door on the side led to a washroom with a standing shower. But yes, just as Kristoff had said, the view was amazing - the wide windows looked out to blue waters so clear it was like a mirror reflecting the green conifers on the shore; there was a small pier leading off from them, beside which several canoes were kept. Anna pointed excitedly towards them.

"You think we can go canoeing?" Anna asked. Elsa shrugged.

"Well, I suppose we could during free-time later today. First, though, we have to survive the Lab Olympics and your poster session."

"Darn..." she muttered playfully. Elsa just chuckled.

"Hey, I'm the one having to give a twenty-minute talk tomorrow. Who has it worse?"

* * *

And so they set off for the Lab Olympics. Fergus took the place of the missing department head, Brad, as host of this year's retreat. Standing proudly at his cardboard podium, face still white with cream pie, he waved his giant hand to silence the crowd.

"Err...yeah, so...welcome to the annual Microbiology and Immunology Lab Games..." he stared at his wife, who was holding up the back of an old poster with his speech written on top. Craning his head forward, he squinted for the words, "Let's...show our enthusiasm for science...oh, forget it Elinor. What science? We're here to kick each other's asses so let's just get on with it!"

He picked up the nearest empty plastic jug from the lab recyclables pile and waved it upwards. At this, the big, rounded grad student from his lab, MacGuffin, nodded and jammed his finger onto the left-click key of his laptop connected to the loudspeakers set nearby. They were immediately bombarded with a familiar strum and majestic cries of strings that sent the crowd roaring.

"What was that?" Elsa asked, quirking an eyebrow above the noise. Anna looked at her incredulously, as though accusing her of not understanding this in-joke.

To answer her confusion, Fergus' voice thundered, "In the game of thrones, you win or you...well, nobody's dying here, so whatever. Now let's fight for the most uncomfortable chair in all Arendelle, forged from a thousand vanquished serological pipettes under the breath of the greatest glue gun in history!"

Elsa held her head in her hand. Gosh...not that TV show again...

* * *

There was a certain enmity between the Dunbroch and Winters Lab by the time of the final event - the egg drop. Well, between the two redheads, Merida and Anna anyway.

It all started with the homemade rockets game, in which Elinor of the Dunbroch Lab had a really good lead over the others with her heated water and dry ice rocket. Then Elsa came along and beat her with a two stage rocket, staggered by the different chemistries between the stages, one with dry ice, the other with vinegar and baking soda.

Well, Merida admitted her lab's defeat, but claimed that "A Dunbroch must always repay his debts". She went on to win the tip-shooting contest and then sprayed Elsa with a faceful of orange Kool-Aid during capture the flag.

"You just had to aim for the face!?" Anna snapped at the younger shrugging redhead as she helped wipe Elsa's face clean with a towel. Elsa was so embarrassed by her gentle attention that she did nothing to interrupt their argument.

"I was trying not to dirty her clothes!" Merida complained. They duelled with their gazes until the Recyclables Fashion Show forced them off the field.

Anna left a last glare, "The Winters are coming..."

So by the time of the egg drop, Anna could care less about whether their team was successful, so long as the Dunbroch Team represented by their lab's triplet high-schoolers, Harris, Hubert, and Hamish, lost.

The triplets worked with Merida over the last Spring Break on their science fair project. Seeing as they were an engineering lab, the triplets designed an electric car for the project, which gained notorious fame after Merida carried it with her on her barehanded climb to the top of the campus clock tower, a plan originally devised by the three. So, expecting the triplets to be any less mischievous than the undergrad would be a kiss of death.

They rigged the egg drop for a win. They boiled the damn eggs they were supposed to drop - there was absolutely no chance of them breaking over the two-storey fall. Anna knew though. Anna knew.

"For the night is dark and full of Anna," she said to Hans and Kristoff, her fellow teammates. Hans managed a chuckle, while Kristoff just snorted a retort.

"It's day, Miss."

"Anyways, I propose we forget about our egg and just break theirs. They're ahead of us on the drop."

"A typical stupid idea from you, Anna," Kristoff snapped again.

"Sounds interesting!" Hans ignored him and expressed his support.

"What? Because you're the embodiment of evil?"

Anna didn't bother listening to them. She was already starting to assemble their device.

"Tada!" She announced, "Meet my Needle!"

"You named this...this thing!?" Kristoff gawked upon a single glance of their egg-drop set-up.

"Every good egg-drop project needs a name."

"And why is the name Needle then? Aside from you fangirling over Arya Stark? It's a damn log! Now where the hell did you get that!?"

"Six logs. From the fireplace. Can't you see the way they're tied together in a long shape to specifically penetrate any baggage holding the Dunbroch cooked egg?"

"I think it'd be more appropriately named as Hammer," Hans couldn't help himself. Kristoff gave him a rare, knowing glance that said - _I feel you, bro_.

So when it came the Winters Lab's turn to drop their egg, Elsa could only stare in shock at Anna hulling the logs over the balcony.

"Oh my..." she muttered before it slammed down onto its counterpart from the Dunbroch Lab.

Well, it did work in the end. The two labs' representatives for the Recyclables Fashion Show were penalized into keeping their outfits on for the rest of the day, not that that would have anything to do with Anna. She grinned.

The final winners of the Polystyrene Throne went to the Shizuru Fujino Lab.

* * *

This poster session was probably the cheapest Elsa had ever attended. First off, it wasn't held in a conference hall, but in the lunch room. There weren't even poster boards, so everybody taped their posters on the wall with an unfortunate few having to manage on the windows when space filled up. Anna was one of them, having been tricked by the Dunbroch triplets into fighting for smoked salmon instead of setting up her poster. Well, they got their revenge, so Merida, whose display was on the adjacent wall, seemed to have declared truce with her.

"Ever been to one of these things?" Merida asked over a bite of blueberry pie. Anna swallowed her mouthful of cheese before answering.

"First time. You?"

"Aye. My first too. Your co-author's a grad student you're working for?"

"Yeah. Elsa Snow."

"Oh, I heard of her. Pretty lady over there with them hair of white gold and eyes of blue ice. She haunts the building, eh? Heh heh."

It was without doubt that Elsa drew attention wherever she went, partially because of the vampire rumours surrounding her, but mostly because she really was physically attractive. And equally without doubt, she was uncomfortable with the attention. Unlike the times when she was giving out presentations, when people were immersed in her science, the bonding events of this retreat felt too personal. This poster session was just one of them. As her submission was chosen for a talk tomorrow, she did not need to present a poster, and thus was left to wander around today. The expectation would be that she chatted with the presenters and look for collaboration chances, but instead, she found herself lingering at the edge of crowds, sipping on champagne in hopes of dulling her nervousness.

In all honesty, she would rather just stand by Anna's display, but not only would that be bad etiquette, seeing as she was a co-author so what could she learn about the project anyway, it would also give Anna a chance to rely on her, which was not the purpose of this exercise here.

Anna needed the feedback from others to improve her knowledge, clarify the ideas she was investigating. With improvement, she could write a better abstract next time, maybe get a talk at the next local conference or even win an award. That would boost her resume up for the travel grant application, and of course, for her future career.

But what of Elsa's own career? She had an impressive publication record, five first-author papers in major journals already. Many people didn't have anything close even after they graduated. Elsa could probably write up her thesis now, get her degree, and have half a dozen small universities offer her a faculty position. She knew, and she knew Brad Winters knew this as well, that even if she chose to do this, she wouldn't get very far from there onwards. Maybe she'd rot away as a lecturer for some basic immunology course for the rest of her life, which while offering her the easy way out, was not exactly her ultimate career goal. But what did she want to do? How could she accomplish this? Those were questions that troubled her, and perhaps those were her only reasons for staying here.

She sighed. She was such a coward. Look at Hans Southern over there, mingling with the Weselton Lab over talks of microfluidic devices that he knew nothing about. Elsa never quite liked him even during their adolescence, always looking for power, even amongst a group of orphans in a care home. But she admitted, he was a good leader. An entitled little bastard, yes, but he understood people, knew how to use them. It wasn't that Elsa wanted to use people - she just wanted to be less scared of them, less scared of herself.

And more than anything else, she wanted to know Anna, and to let Anna know her. But she didn't know where to start.

What she intended as stealing a glance at the younger girl, a hungry skim over her radiant strawberry blonde hair and lush teal eyes as lively as the forests around them, turned into an exchange of longing stares when Anna returned her gaze. She wanted to look away, but her mind was still distracted by the natural beauty emanating from the youthful countenance.

"Hey, Anna, I think yur grad student yis lookin yur way," Merida commented, only to notice that Anna had already turned her attention that way. She laughed. "I think the way you look at'er and she you tis real cute. Ya, about as cute as when you wiped Kool-Aid off 'er pretteh face."

"What?" Anna turned around, surprised. Merida grinned.

"Cute liek good ole Fergus and our dear Elinor. I approve." She held her thumb up. Anna slapped lightly at it.

"I don't need you to approve!"

"Of course, of course, so long'as tha Lab Vampire herself approves 'tis all good."

Merida gave her a little shove in the direction of Elsa, and when Anna turned around to give her a questioning look, Merida just winked. Gosh, the whole world was against her! Kristoff, Rapunzel, and now Merida!?

"Umm...so..." Anna began when she reached Elsa, "How are you liking the posters so far?"

"They're...well...nice." _\- Not that she had read any of them in detail! She was too shy to move too close to the presenter, and her mind wasn't there anyway!_

"Seems like the session is dying down," Anna commented again. Elsa just nodded.

"People probably want to focus on eating lunch. Others are starting their free-time early."

"Maybe we should too?"

There was begging in Anna's eyes. Clearly she wanted to get to the canoes sooner, or maybe she just couldn't stand another sight of her new archrival, Merida. Either way, Elsa was a poor judge when it came to these things.

So she just nodded her approval, all the while wondering if she would've done so had she not taken the sip of champagne. Elsa didn't know a day would come when she would inwardly tell herself science be damned unless it was her chemistry with a certain beautiful ginger. Against her common sense, she smiled.

Anna did a great job today, and she was right, the session was already dying down. Whoever was interested in their project would already have visited. They both deserve a break from all the idiots in the room.

So she let herself be happily towed along by Anna to the storage room where they picked their lifejackets and paddles. They then ran down the hilly dirt path to the pier and together heaved a canoe into the water, splashing each other with sprays of water.

"You did not have to be so violent, Anna!" Elsa complained. She half-cursed Merida for having ruined her sky-blue top in today's earlier contest, leaving her with a white one on currently. Any more of this and she might as well have worn a transparent plastic bag instead.

"Oh, just get on, my Snow Queen. You won't melt from a little water."

"I'm...not..." she muttered, trying so hard not to look at the way Anna puffed out her bosom in an encouraging gesture. After a precarious step that rocked their canoe dangerously from side to side, Elsa managed a safe landing onto her own seat.

"Oh, you Silly Thing! You aren't supposed to face me!" Anna laughed. At this, Elsa's face grew even hotter._ I was so absorbed in her that...that I...that I got on the canoe the wrong way!?_

"Look," Anna continued, still giggling, "I have no problem with staring at you for the next hour - the beautiful lake and mountain valley are bonuses."

Anna didn't know if she said this because Elsa's embarrassment at her implication was so adorable, or because she wanted to hide her own in a veil of mutuality.

The effect was not what she had expected though. Just when she was about to complain about Elsa's attempt to turn around, seeing as she really did buy the creative idea of rowing face-to-face, they lost their balance and the canoe flipped, dumping them both into the lake a bare inch from dock.

Anna popped up first, her lifejacket eagerly floating. Elsa then managed to get out from under the canoe with some struggle and popped up next to her.

"Oh my goodness, you're drenched!" Anna laughed, pointing at the tangles of wet platinum mixed with chips of wood and grass that Elsa was desperately trying to pry from her face. Anna grabbed onto the edge of the pier and hulled herself up, then helped drag Elsa out of the water.

"And you aren't?" Elsa complained, finally having plastered her hair to the side instead. She opened her eyes, blues shining through.

Only then did Anna notice their distance.

It was the first time they were so close she could see her own reflection on the ice shards.

Entranced, she reached forward to brush her fingers through Elsa's wet white strands. They slipped through her hands like a narrow waterfall between her delicate fingers.

And Elsa didn't seem to mind.

Encouraged, she moved her hands onto Elsa's arms, pale peach showing through the sleeves that clung to her shapely figure. She moved closer, her hands lower - when she spoke, she could feel her breath deflected back at herself from Elsa's skin.

"You hurt? Anywhere?" She asked. Elsa shook her head lightly, and for a very brief, split-second, their noses touched from the movement.

But both of them seemed to have felt it.

Oblivious of everything else, Anna watched a water drop escape Elsa's bangs to drip onto her eyelid. When it fluttered close, the droplet slipped down in a shimmering trail between the high cheek and nose to the top of those thin lips now a flaming red.

Anna closed her eyes.

**End of Chapter 11**


	12. Chapter 12

AN: Thanks TheElementHero, t3l4m0n, kassdunn, Burntwhitemocha, frankenjones, Nayal, brunhe, Lance58, Soccerari0476, PhantomGemini, ketbelle, Icy-Windbreeze, EleHime, Yuiiub, Luniverse, Supremacy of Chaos, el-sana, GhostofWintersPast, jellygould, GuesT, White Belt Writer, rundownSabEr, aeroeng15, and the guests for their kind comments. Umm...just to answer some of the questions that came up last chapter...I really just left off where I did last time because I had hit my internal word limit, after which I usually collapse from exhaustion. I'm not good at writing fluff so I was thinking rather than screwing it up majorly, let's just leave it for next week. So yeah. No major angst coming up. Rather, I'm expecting some resolution to the angst. There would be some plot business next chapter, but today's update is mainly fluff. Once again, constructive suggestions are more than welcome. Revision for earlier chapters is ongoing - I haven't had much time the past weeks to get to it, but I'll go through them eventually.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 12

Time seemed to slow...

_Oh my gosh this is so freakishly cliché I don't have a better way of describing it._

Anna knew this scene from dozens of sappy romance novels she had read in her life, the nearing of lips, warmth interweaving, soft skin and lush hair felt under her hands - she had come to the realization that she wanted to kiss Elsa, but unlike what she would've imagined from her conservative upbringing, guilt was the least of her concerns. The real challenge came from the notion that this would either turn out perfect, or something absolutely abominable would shatter the moment - after all, that was what happened in fiction, right? Couldn't expect otherwise in reality.

Her heart pounded nervously. Screw the books - she swore she shouldn't have closed her eyes. What if she knocked Elsa's nose flat with her teeth or slobbered all over her face or something? Oh God, oh God, oh God…what to do? She wished MICB 402 could be replaced by KISS 402…alas, she wouldn't have the lower level prerequisites to take the course.

_How do people get these things right the first time!?_

Because their noses were already touching, she instead opted to explore Elsa's facial contours with hers, tracing the water droplets on the older girl's skin, sliding downwards, sniffing out soft territory a curious mix of soothing cool and enticing warmth. She brought her hands to Elsa's waist where it was exposed under the lifejacket, brushing out the creases of her wet shirt, stroking soft circles as she did so.

Whatever it was, Elsa clearly found it agreeable, as she too brought her hands around Anna's back, a little less daringly though because she only held Anna through the thick vest. She made up for it soon enough. From the testing touch of Elsa's lips against Anna's nose, the younger girl could guess the older still had her eyes closed and was similarly blindly navigating along. The fleeting touch returned with a deeper, yet equally gentle kiss, and Anna felt the area flare with desire. She moved counter to Elsa's downward motion, rocking upwards so the kiss dragged along the bridge of her nose to its tip, leaving a searing trail.

Anna groaned from Elsa withdrawing. She didn't open her eyes though. She knew if she did, it would all be over, so keeping them closed, she gripped harder onto their embrace and dipped her nose down Elsa's jaw to her neck, tracing the skipping pulse of her carotid down to where the collarbone intercepted. She contemplated nibbling at it, but she wasn't sure how far she could push Elsa's bounds, so she simply pressed her lips against it, sliding tender flesh over bone.

Elsa shuddered, voice a bare whisper, "An…Anna…wait…"

Her hands had slid between their bodies, clinging onto the front of Anna's lifejacket, but Anna's reluctance to stop what she was doing was making Elsa fall limp. Anna retraced her previous route with her lips, white hot burning above the artery that Elsa swore constricted and left her brain depleted of oxygen. The satin drag of Anna's hair on her bare skin was not helping at all.

"…wait…we're still wet…"

_I like it wet_ \- Anna had wanted to say - _it'd only get wetter - _but she thought better of it. At least Elsa didn't object to continuing after they dried up, so she decided not to push her luck further.

"Fine," she finally pulled away, fixing a half glare at the blonde who was flushed with a mad red at the moment. Such a sight made Anna giggle, and she couldn't help playfully pinching those cherry cheeks between her fingers.

Interestingly, Elsa just pouted a little, but let her do as she liked. "I think it's about time we pull the canoe out of the water," she said, pointing at where it was still bobbing upside down in the lake.

Anna laughed, face equally flushed to highlight those adorable freckles of hers; Elsa's calm expression didn't betray the burning wish in her chest to claim each and every one of them with her tongue. She used the last shreds of her conscious will to look away, scanning the water instead for the rope attached to the canoe's hull. Fishing it out of the water, she began yanking it upwards to little avail until Anna reached around her from behind to tow the canoe back onto dock.

Around her. Anna reached around her. If not for the damned vest her boobs would be pressing against her back.

_Why the hell can I not think of anything besides this? Well…Anna…Anna probably likes it though…_

She sneaked a glance to her side where Anna had dipped her head onto her shoulder. Elsa could feel it. Anna's inside was bright as the smile she wore outside, if not even more. She was literally beaming with a joy so contagious that Elsa could feel it sing rapidly in her own veins too. From the beginning, her attraction towards Anna, the reason she couldn't pull away, was that despite any efforts to deter her, Anna never stopped feeling like this. Anna never stopped feeling happy when she was by Elsa's side.

It had been so long that Elsa had forgotten how it felt to make someone happy.

_But what if I destroy it again? What if I hurt her? No, I would be able to feel that she's hurt, so I wouldn't accidentally continue doing it…but…but…what if it's something out of my control, and she's hurting again? I won't be able to do anything. Just like before. Because I'm a coward. Look, I can't even tell her! _

She shivered, drawing Anna's full attention.

"Oh my God, it's totally my fault we're not already inside. Sorry. You must be cold, right?"

"No, I'm fine," Elsa answered with a smile, trying to dissuade Anna's concern. _The cold never bothered me anyway._ "But you're right, let's go back and take a shower before we fall into hypothermia."

* * *

As Elsa had been insistent that she took a warm shower first, so insistent that they stood there arguing about it for five minutes, Anna decided she might as well so that they didn't both freeze over outside.

She finished as quickly as she could, and to prevent her imagination from wrecking havoc inside her quickly sizzling brain, she immediately left Elsa's vicinity and went down to the main building on the camp where dinner would be served. Several of the Dunbroch, Corona, and Winters Lab members were already seated, namely Merida and Rapunzel who were chatting over cups of juice.

"Where are the others?" Anna asked.

"I suppose ya talkin 'bout them Winters Lab boys upstairs? They're gettin their butts kicked by my buddies in Mario Cart," Merida yapped happily, "So how did it go with yur Ice Queen?"

"You mean Elsa?" Rapunzel asked, ears perking up. Anna glared at Merida but was only met by a grin from the other girl.

"Seein yur face glowin like a hot barbecue fork seems like a good sign, ya?"

"It's not like a darn fork!"

"Oh who cares, Anna. We just want to know if you are over that awkward phase already."

"What phase?"

"That I-still-need-to-lie-about-how-she's-just-my-friend phase?"

Merida nodded to what Rapunzel said, "Ya've got fine description skills, Gal."

"No!" Anna denied immediately, then regretted it when she saw them snicker. Oh, whatever, she knew they were right. She was getting somewhere with Elsa, not as a friend, but…"Okay. I don't know. Really."

Merida chuckled in her face, "Come on, ya lil coward. Just ask 'er out!"

Anna swore she wanted to burn holes in Merida's face. Noticing her anger, Rapunzel patted her on the shoulder, "Don't worry. I'm with you on this one, Anna. I know how it feels."

"Really?" Anna quirked an eyebrow at Rapunzel, "Heck, I don't know how I feel myself!"

"Ya know nuthin, Anna."

Merida made that Ygritte expression that sent Rapunzel nearly tumbling onto the floor laughing. Anna scowled.

"It's not funny, Merida."

"An…anyway, trust me, your worries are not as uncommon as they seem. But they are nonetheless somewhat trivial from an objective perspective like Merida's," Rapunzel managed to say after she reined in her laughter. Anna rolled her eyes.

"Like it's not trivial in your perspective too, 'Punzel. You were totally laughing at my expense!"

"Look, if you want to talk about it, I'd be glad to help however I can."

"Well, ya lost yur chance since here comes the Lab Vampire…"

Anna mouthed the name of the newcomer in objection to Merida's nickname. Seeing the blonde enter the room, Rapunzel whispered some last words before she joined them, "Merida and I are having a girls' night behind the cabin. Let's talk then."

Anna groaned. Why was she being counselled by a high school student and a fellow undergrad who looked like she wasn't getting a boyfriend, or a girlfriend for that matter, any time in the near future? But she couldn't refuse, seeing as she really wanted to talk about it, sort out the jumble of feels and pathetic action plans messed up even further by said feels. She didn't know what to do - what she _wanted_ to do! And the moment Elsa's hand landed on her shoulder and she was met by that gentle smile mingled with sweet lavender shampoo, all she wanted was to pull her face close and kiss her till she fell!

_Damn-my-libido! Stop acting up when I'm trying to have a normal conversation like every other human being out there!_

"Hey!" she managed to choke out the single word. It sounded like a squeak, and she knew it because Merida was already covering her mouth to hide the giggles.

"Hey…" and Elsa's attempt at replying in a dry,_ platonic_ monotone turned out likewise strange - its deep pitch and smooth timbre was literally dripping sexy.

"Look, food! Think we should go line up early, Merida?" Rapunzel interrupted the awkwardness. The laughing girl bobbed her redhead up and down twice and trailed behind the leaving brunette.

More awkwardness ensued.

_Does being in love make you more prone to paralysis 'cause damn it, my eyes won't move away from her!_

_Or am I just an infatuated idiot? Gosh, either way this is a disease and why am I loving it!?_

Anna fidgeted, just to make sure her eye paralysis had not extended to her limbs. Maybe it did, because though they moved slightly under her command, she felt a godly force preventing further movement of her blubber away from its current position facing Elsa.

"Umm…so…" Anna started. Elsa's eyes darted side to side, just not staying on her.

"Err…people are starting to come in, it seems."

"Yeah. 'Cause food is ready. I guess we should go get some too? I love salmon…would be sad if they ran out by the time we reach the front of the line…but don't get me wrong! We can stay a bit too if you prefer waiting for the line to die down. It might be easier that way. Gosh, you know all of that so why was I rambling? I'm rambling again, right? I'm so sorry, I…"

"Let's line up before the salmon's gone then," Elsa replied, dragging her by the hand to the front. Before Anna's crazy thoughts could even begin about the hand-holding thing, Elsa let her go, drawing slight disappointment. She liked the touch. She liked all her touches so much she wanted to…wrap herself around the blonde like burrito around filling!

Luckily, the line was efficient enough and very soon they were back at their table, Anna relishing in the distraction of eating a very delicious dinner. The cedar plank salmon was done just right, juicy with the additional zing of lemon rounded with touches of maple syrup. A few minutes in and she had already finished her piece.

"This is good, isn't it?" she said, drawing Kristoff and Hans' attention.

"Yeah, chicken is good too, but a little dry. Eat it with the mango salad. Gives it a sweet, tangy note," Hans replied.

"A note? Did you just say that? A sweet, tangy note?" Kristoff feigned incredulousness at Hans' statement. The grad student just snorted.

"Was it incomprehensible to you? Need a dictionary?"

"I think you're the one needing a dictionary for the word 'pretentious'."

"Right, because holding a general discussion on food that's not McDonalds is considered pretentious?"

"Okay, guys. Chill. It's just chicken," Anna said, breaking their argument. Hans made a last smirk before returning his eyes to Anna.

"We can be chill, but the chicken cannot. Let's finish it while it's still warm."

"Ha ha ha, very witty," Kristoff dead-panned. Anna just shook her head at the two and moved her gaze back onto the plate.

Oh.

There was still salmon? She thought she had finished it.

As she grinned at the piece of orange-pink meat and nearly giggled from the delight of its taste in her mouth, Elsa sneaked a peek at her.

_I'll make her happy. I will._

* * *

After the boring "how to make a good poster" workshop Elsa made her enrol in, Anna was finally free to join Rapunzel and Merida behind the cabin.

"Hey Anna! Over here!" Rapunzel waved from around the corner. They were sitting at a pebble-strewn clearing, surrounded by conifers lighted a warm green under the campfire. She threw Anna a bag of marshmallows and gestured for her to sit. "I brought crackers and chocolate too. We can make s'mores."

"Childish," Merida shook her head in disapproval while downing an IPA, "This, Milady, is proof of maturity."

"Right, so let's just set your marshmallow on fire!" Rapunzel declared with an abrupt push of Merida's arm to dip her stick down, setting the dangling marshmallow aflame. Merida waved the fireball dangerously around.

"Yur an insolent lil ass!"

"Oh come on, Merida, you're a good sport. Can stand a little joke, eh?"

"Don't 'eh' meh like a Canadian…the bears wud come and getcha. Polar bears."

"I thought it's beavers, hahaha…" Rapunzel laughed. Anna face-palmed. And by definition Canadians must all live in igloos then…

"Anyways, I'm sure Anna here is probably exasperated by our off-topicness," Rapunzel continued, drawing a gape from the strawberry blonde. She grinned, "You know, the topic of Elsa…"

"Yep, Lab Vampire. We're gonna talk vampire tonight," Merida chimed.

"She's not a vampire!"

"Not yur Edward Cullen then? Sparkly and'all?"

"No! And didn't you say something about maturity, Dunbroch?"

"Well, well, the desire to imprison yurself in the arms of another tis hardly a wise decision anyway."

"So says the girl of more than twenty years who has yet to date anyone. Her opinion on romance is as good as horseshit," Rapunzel answered. When Anna lowered her head in lament, she slapped her hand to her mouth, "Holy crap, sorry! I didn't mean…you too!"

"Oh stop sulkin you lil thing. Yur gettin there. Taken by the Frosty…"

Rapunzel couldn't help herself, nearly tumbling to the ground from the log she was seated on, "Frosty!? You called Elsa Frosty!? That was the most amazing shit to come out your mouth thus far, Merida!"

Anna groaned. This wasn't helping at all.

"Okay, Feisty Pants. So what's your problem?" she asked, hoping a real discussion might relieve Anna's tensions. The older girl sighed though.

"I don't know. That's the problem."

"Wut ya mean ya dunno? I said in the afternoon, jus confess already!"

"But I don't know if that's what I want!"

"Okay, Anna, just say it, what do you want from her at this very moment. Not the future. Just this moment. What do you want to do?"

_Fuck her senseless? _Her brain screamed. Or was it just her evolutionary instinct? She no longer knew.

"The moment I'm close to her, I want to kiss her," she admitted to the tamer description. Rapunzel nodded.

"Let's say you have it your way. She lets you kiss her. Then what?"

"I'd…wait, it's not the point of whether she lets me, I want to know how she feels!"

"So your first worry is resolved. You don't just lust after her. You love her."

"I was…" Anna started, then just stopped, no further words coming off her tongue. Rapunzel nailed it. Without even knowing it herself, Anna was worried about objectifying Elsa, and there you go, she gave proof that this wasn't the case.

Stupid her. Of course. If she did just lust after Elsa, she wouldn't have had so much trouble kissing her in the afternoon!

"Okay, so we've established that you love her. What's holding you back from a confession?"

"I don't know how she'd react!"

"Isn't that the point, Silly?" Merida chimed in, "Ya confess yur feels and she decides. However she'd react doesn't change yur feels, does it?"

"It's reassurance Anna needs, Merida. She needs to know that confessing won't do irreversible damage to their relationship, even if it were just a wholly friendly one. From what we both see, she has all the reassurance she needs. She's the only one who can get Elsa blushing."

"What!?" Anna exclaimed. Right. Maybe she was. "But…Elsa seems reluctant."

"Oh? So she's receptive, but…you think she has set some bounds as to the speed with which she wants things proceeding?"

Holy mother Rapunzel was a real love expert, not anything like what Kristoff sometimes claimed to be. She was really shooting bullseye a hundred percent, so Anna could just nod at the way the brunette effortlessly disentangled her thought process.

"Then tis simple!" Merida exclaimed. Anna glared.

"I don't want to hear that from you again, Bully…"

"No!" she answered, hands waving in the air in a display of innocence, "Serious. Tis simple. Ya ask 'er."

"I ask her?"

"I dunno much 'bout relationships, but isn't it supposed to be between both of ya? Ya dun need to take it'all upon yurself."

And Rapunzel nodded. Wow! She agreed!

"I guess you're right?" Anna finished. She stared at the campfire where her marshmallow was being toasted a white gold. Just like her hair, Anna mused, and she smiled.

* * *

By the time Anna returned to her room, it was already well past two. Elsa had left the blinds slightly open to let in the bluish moonlight so that Anna wouldn't trip on her way to bed, for which she was grateful as she tip-toed to Elsa's side. She set down a package, and with a big grin on her face, returned to her own side and retreated under the covers.

Elsa waited till Anna's breathing settled, then opening her eyes slightly, surveyed the package on her bedside cabinet.

She reached out with one hand and brushed aside the napkins holding it together. A note fell out onto the wooden surface while she unveiled the carefully wrapped s'mores, molten marshmallow still warm and dripping down chocolate and cracker.

_Thanks for the salmon. Hope you like these :)_

_\- Anna_

**End of Chapter 12**


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Thanks Luniverse, liz2323, AsheWottlin, Lance58, brunhe, kkattapiya, xxxThaliaxxx, PhantomGemini, ElsaStoleMyPen, Icy-Windbreeze, GhostofWintersPast, kassdunn, Yuiiub, Kyoko-nyaa, iwantaparrot1, Supremacy of Chaos, Nayal, TheElementHero, and the guest for their kind comments. Sorry for the delay. I was sick. At least I didn't leave it at a cliffhanger last time…sort of…Anyway, comments and suggestions are welcome, so long as you don't flame. I don't think I wanna be barbecued. Thanks!

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 13

That had got to be the longest night ever.

Anna was a sleepy head. She never had this "insomnia" problem before. Worse, she had to pretend to sleep. Like how? She was usually drooling over her sheets by now!

And then Elsa reached over to open her package of s'mores. That very moment she realized they were both pretending to sleep.

_Oh God, what to do, what to do…_

She clung to her sheets and rolled to perch on the side of her bed, as far away from Elsa as possible. Good that Elsa's body temperature seemed to be a little below average - at this distance, the hollow behind her felt soothingly cool. But that only made her mind wander, because the cold had always been the very embodiment of Elsa herself.

_Gosh, Anna, she isn't a damn freezer!_

She sneaked a peek behind her. Like Anna, Elsa also had her back facing the center of the bed. She wasn't as far to the side as Anna was though - the shared sheets placing some constraint on how far she could go. In fact, the tension in those very sheets was letting Anna feel Elsa's fidgeting - the pools of white gold shimmered with those uneasy movements, cascading down the pillow to touch their ginger counterparts nearby.

_Our hair is touching!  
Oh come on, it's just hair. It's like…I don't know…human fur._

Anna distracted herself by turning onto her back so she was staring at the plain ceiling, but she kept getting the feeling that Elsa was looking at her from her periphery. No, that was impossible. She didn't have the eyes of a fruit fly - there was no way she could see the side of her head. Just imagination. Calm down. Calm…

"Oh fuck it!" she declared eventually, before the sun even rose. Elsa shifted to face her, bleary blues looking into her teals.

"What's the matter, Anna?"

"I can't sleep!"

Though she couldn't sleep either, Elsa wasn't about to give up trying. She wasn't one to sleep many hours, always heading into the lab before anybody else and not leaving till late at night. But that meant she compensated for the lack of sleeping time with deeper sleep - she slept like a rock and it was something she had been immensely proud of.

"Go back to sleep, Anna," she muttered, ducking her head back into the sheets. Without Anna's roaring heat blazing by her side, the cool bed was becoming more and more enticing. Unfortunately, Anna didn't seem to enjoy the lack of company - she propped herself back onto the bed and leaned an elbow onto Elsa's shoulder.

"The sky is awake, so I'm awake!"

"It's not. That's the moon," she mumbled sarcastically. She was about to completely vanish under the covers, but Anna simply pulled the entire comforter off and sent it flying for the ground.

"Do you want to build an inuksuk?"

"What? Sorry?"

"Inuksuk! Like, those Inuit landmark thingies."

"And why should we do that?"

"Because there isn't snow. I'd love to build a snowman, but it's October."

The conversation was becoming less and less comprehensible, so Elsa gave up trying to comprehend it, "Fine. Let's build an inuksuk."

* * *

Anna pulled her down the stairs, both of them still in their PJs. Elsa wore a short-sleeved sky blue dress, made bluer in the moonlight - it faded in colour down her figure till becoming transparent at the level of her knees. Anna couldn't help training her eyes on it, and what lay beyond, legs that seemed to run on forever smooth and bare.

Little did she know she held a similar appeal in Elsa's eyes. The oversized forest-green t-shirt she was wearing matched her eyes perfectly. She wasn't wearing anything underneath. That alone made Elsa's mind foggy.

"So how should we start?" Anna asked once they were outside. The night breeze was doing little to lower her body temperature. She could swear she was sweating profusely.

"Let's start by getting you some pants, Anna. You're gonna get mosquito bites all over."

"Likewise, Elsa," she chided, "But who cares. I'm not going back now that we're at a nice patch of rocks."

Elsa sighed. Right. Like those rocks were alive and would walk away.

But Anna was so excited to simply be there. She sat down and started stacking the rocks one on top of another, building a precarious tower that obviously tumbled soon after. She growled and started over, flushed pink with embarrassment. The sight took away the last of Elsa's sanity, and thus she found herself sitting behind Anna, one hand on her back, another holding her palm.

"Not those rocks, you little idiot. Try the ones that are flat on both sides."

"I knew that!"

"Of course you did. You were just too impatient. Take your time. We have plenty."

Elsa guided Anna's hand over a smooth rock and placed it onto a boulder they had been using as a platform. From there, they stacked two stubby legs, a heavy body, and a long rectangular head. On the very top, Anna jabbed thin twigs into the rocky cracks, presumably as hair.

"It needs a nose," Anna declared at their waist-high sculpture. Elsa sighed again, her breath clearly felt on Anna's exposed neck.

"It's not a snowman."

"Fine, we still need to give it a name though."

Elsa pondered. Then finally, without ever letting go of Anna's hand, said, "Olaf then. Olaf was a snowman."

"I thought it's the lab printer!" Anna exclaimed. Elsa chuckled.

"I named it that. I named the printer after a snowman I built as a kid."

"You…you did!?"

Anna couldn't quite believe it. Okay, she always thought Elsa was adorable in a dorky kind of way. But she never expected her to be so damn cute!

"Well…the printer is fat and white, so it was the first thing to come to mind."

_Nobody is questioning your logic here. Thing is, people don't usually name their printers…_

Anna thought about saying this aloud, but decided against it. She liked this Elsa. She loved her. She wanted to know more.

"So when did you build Olaf the Snowman?"

Elsa's hands shook. She removed herself from Anna and looked away into the distant lake.

"A long time ago. Too long ago; I can hardly remember anymore."

Elsa's tone stung like a wasp, leaving Anna's heart throbbing and swollen. She told herself that if she could wait so long just for Elsa to open the dark room door, what was the big deal with waiting a little longer for Elsa to open up further? But another part of her wasn't so lenient. It reasoned that Elsa didn't trust her. She was at fault.

"I…" Elsa began again, flooded with guilt. Anna's shattered hope was a black hole drilling into her soul - she felt it as strongly as the dark of the night around them. It made her hate herself. She was hurting others. Again. She knew others' feelings yet still couldn't change a thing!

_What's this unscientific power good for anyway?_

Elsa steeled herself. She promised she would try one more time. She wouldn't hurt Anna. She would make her happy, "I didn't mean to sound like that. It's just…it's really just very long ago, so the memories are hazy."

"It's okay," Anna replied with a smile, "That hazy memory with Olaf was a good one?"

"Yes."

"Then that's all that matters. I forget the rest. You know, the not-so-good times."

Elsa smiled back with hopes the rift she tore tonight would be mended in time. She remembered the words of her late mother. Be strong. Be proud. Do not conceal, especially to yourself. Her powers were a gift. Feel with it. Embrace the emotions. Use it to become a better person, one who could protect those around her.

She wasn't there yet, because she had always been hiding. She didn't know if she'd ever make it, but at least now, she had found her motivation.

Anna reached out for her. She just needed to hold on.

"Anyway, I think we should go back. You look like you're shivering," Elsa noted. Anna hardly noticed, but sure enough, her exposed arms were rough with goosebumps. She laughed through it though.

"Only if you would rub the goosebumps away first."

"But wouldn't it go away after we get back inside?"

"I don't care. Do it."

"Somebody's bossy," Elsa groaned, but did as she was told. She held onto Anna's arms and stroked them top to bottom tentatively, then smoothed out the remaining bumps by rubbing circles with her thumbs. Anna hummed till Elsa finally spoke again, "Better?"

"Better…" Anna deadpanned. Why was Elsa so damn dense? Argh!

* * *

When they made it back to the building, Anna paused at the ground level corridor leading to the Corona Lab's rooms. Elsa quirked an eyebrow, but Anna just answered with a grin, whispering, "You go ahead. I have to do something."

"You're not getting yourself into trouble."

"Don't worry. I'm getting us away from trouble. Trust me."

But when Elsa awoke in the morning, she regretted her decision of leaving Anna alone.

She found two things out of place.

The first was Anna herself, who instead of being on the bed, was sleeping on one of the cushioned chairs in the room, covered in her fabric-print poster.

Well, that was a creative use for the seventy-bucks print. Judging by how Anna was sleeping soundly, it kept her warm enough.

But the other thing out of place, slung across Anna's bedside lamp…

Boxers!?

"Anna!" Elsa nearly yelled, jolting the younger girl awake. The redhead was clearly displeased with being awoken at seven in the morning after the less than three hours sleep she had, her hair a puffed-up mess resembling the fat bags beneath her eyes.

"Shut up, Elsa."

"Only after you explain this to me!"

The blonde picked up the boxers with the tip of two fingers to minimize contact as though it'd kill her with a deadly virus otherwise. She threw it over Anna's face.

"Eww…Elsa! Why did you do that!?"

"Why do you have boxers in our room to begin with? Dirty boxers, green, with red hearts!"

"Go ask Eugene about his tastes, not me!"

"What!?" Elsa was fuming by now, "Why do you have Eugene's boxers with you?"

"I obviously stole them," Anna said flatly, throwing the boxers onto the carpet.

"What. Because you like the smell?"

"Elsa!" Anna yelled, "I won't even steal your bra and sniff it, let alone Eugene's boxers! I'm not a pervert!"

_Wait a second, Anna. Did you just indirectly confess?_

"Okay," but strangely that seemed to have calmed Elsa down. She just stood with arms on her waist, looking absolutely stupefied, "Just tell me why you stole them then."

"Punzie told me Eugene would be pulling pranks tonight. So if we take his boxers hostage, he'd spare us."

"His boxers. Hostage."

"Yeah, why not? What kind of guy would want others knowing he wears green boxers with red hearts? I also took a picture of his other pair - Powerpuff Girls."

Elsa sighed, "Okay, you got a point. But you should've taken the Powerpuff Girls one. And if you're gonna blackmail him with those boxers, you should hide it so he can't easily steal them back. He's known as the Building Thief not for nothing."

"Oh Elsa, such a worry wart. He's only good at stealing detergent. I'll leave him a bottle of soap at the door."

Elsa scratched her head. Whatever. With the shit of the morning out of the way, she decided she needed breakfast.

* * *

Not bothering with her usual braid, Elsa cleaned herself up quite simply, grabbed her purple Micro and Immune Grad Student Society T-shirt, donned on some jeans, and went down to the café. Anna followed shortly with a purple shirt herself, a button-down, only to be met with a snickering Merida.

"Ya two are matchin!"

That made both their faces red.

"I…er…need to go over my talk," Elsa muttered almost unintelligibly to get out of the scene. She picked up some scones, fruit, and a yogurt and hurriedly retreated to the lounge.

"SO…" Merida chimed loud and long, "How'd go, Anna friend? Ya two had a gud nite I take'it?"

"Oh, you mean if they made out, I'd guess no. Eugene told me his boxers are missing. Quite obviously, Anna here took the time to steal them after I leaked out Eugene's prank plans," Rapunzel answered before Anna could open her mouth. Merida pretended to be shocked while hiding peals of laughter behind her hand.

"I'm protecting her. Both of us!"

"Not saying it's a bad idea, Anna. You should've taken the Powerpuff Girls pair. He hates them, but I make him wear them. Imagine his face if the picture gets leaked onto the building intranet!"

"Oh, you're saying the same thing as Elsa did. Well, I do have a picture," Anna said, glad for the distraction. Merida just grabbed her cell, typed a message, and sent.

"There, Gurl. Helped ya blackmail him already. Powerpuff Girls it'is," she turned Anna's phone off, pulled out the sim card and pocketed it, then returned the device to the other redhead, "Now he's no idea where tis. Won't bother ya tanite, promise. So ya've got peace'n'quiet ta make out with yur vampire buddy."

"Merida!" Anna nearly yelled, but managed to keep her volume lower thereafter, "This isn't about making out with Elsa!"

"Oh yah, confession, blah blah. Yur supposed ta've done dat already. Last nite."

"I gave her s'mores!"

"You gave her s'mores?" Rapunzel asked, "They're not good when cold. The marshmallow has to be drippy!"

"Well…she ate them. I don't see them around this morning."

"Da point of drippy marshmallow tis like cheese. Stretchy. Ya hold one end, she da other, and ya eat da drip then each otha."

"Merida!" Anna exclaimed. Even Rapunzel's face was a little aflame. For someone with zero romance experience, Merida sure had an imaginative mind.

"Since ya skipped da confession last nite, might'as well skip da whole thin altogetha. No drippy marshmallow, then jus eat 'er first 'n last."

Anna plummeted her forehead into her palm.

"Anyway, Anna. Merida has a point. You should probably do the confession thing sooner rather than later. You look so confused! You should talk it over with Elsa and get things sorted out, otherwise you two would just be running in circles."

"I know. I get it." _It's just so embarrassing I can't get it out of my mouth. Gosh, Anna, where are your rambling skills when you need it?_

"Down some beers afta da keynote tanite 'n ambush 'er at da bonfire!"

"That sounds absolutely romantic, Merida. Thanks Merida," Anna deadpanned. Merida delivered a hard slap on her back and then finally left her for apple pie.

* * *

The day slipped by slowly. Elsa's talk was nice as always, this one revealing a new side of research Anna didn't know too much about previously. It was on a study of microbial consortia, still in its early stages. The data was rough compared to the colloquium talk Elsa gave previously, but immensely interesting as there was still much to be discovered. As of current, the study was still focused upon developing the methods, with her collaborators from the Weselton Lab working on single-cell genomics using microfluidic approaches, while Elsa herself focused on a pipeline for analyzing gene interaction data for predicting how the consortium actually worked. Questions came up about whether there was potential to commercialize the platform, but Elsa seemed reluctant to answer, so Dr. Weselton took over instead.

The rest of the day, aside from lunch and dinner, were all talks. Anna found herself wanting to doze off for a number of them - Kristoff had promptly fallen asleep along with the Dunbroch triplets. Elsa seemed interested in the keynote at any rate - it also had to do with microfluidics, so perhaps she found it enlightening.

"How can you last through those talks anyway?" Anna whined when the keynote was finally over. She handed Elsa her beer, seeing as the older girl was talking to the speaker for the first few minutes after the talk and couldn't get in the long lineup for bitter alcoholic beverages. Elsa gave a small smile.

"Trust me, I find most of them as boring as you do."

"You at least liked the keynote."

"Well, I know Dr. Moors from a while back," Elsa said, a bit hesitant to say more, Anna noticed. She decided not to press further though. Slow and steady, little baby steps, one at a time. Elsa would open up eventually. She trusted her.

"Is that why you feel comfortable enough to speak with her?"

"I suppose."

It did perk up Anna's interest though. Dr. Mally Moors was better known in their local scientific community as Maleficent, seeing as her research was almost always contrary to the mainstream. She sure wore her tenure badge proudly, counting on the fact that the institution couldn't fire her. Not that they would, seeing as her volatile opinions bought them plenty of publicity and subsequent funding. She constantly nitpicked prominent publications and forced a number to be retracted for faulty experimental setups. Despite this, it was near impossible ignoring her achievement in the field of genetic engineering - she was one of the forerunners for developing systematic approaches to synthetic bio-designs.

The woman was older than she looked. Hardly past her thirties, her high cheekbones and gothic attire certainly made her look more like a vampire than Elsa ever did. Anna giggled, seeing the connection. Maybe brilliant yet eccentric people really flocked together!

"You're laughing at me," Elsa noted, gulping down the beer. She coughed at its bitter tinge, "What is this!? This is the worst beer I've tasted, ever!"

"Apparently a donation from the Weselton Lab," Anna answered, generously pouring it down her own throat while she walked towards the bonfire. Elsa's narrowed gaze spoke of disapproval.

"Don't drink so much, Anna. You'd die from this cheap stuff."

"It's fine!" she muttered. Talking about Dr. Maleficent was a good distraction, but now that they weren't engaged in conversation, and she had come with Elsa to the far edge of the bonfire, just the two of them, alone, well-hidden in the shadows of the building, she felt the pressure building up again.

Merida, Rapunzel: they'd both kill her if she didn't confess tonight.

Not that that was why she was confessing. She really did want Elsa to know. She was just damn nervous!

"So…" Anna started. She dragged out the word, but couldn't get herself to fill it in. Elsa stared at her.

"So?"

"Umm…so what did you think about the keynote?"

"Didn't you say you noticed I liked it? Dr. Moors' research is relevant to what I'm planning to do next, so I made sure I didn't fall asleep…unlike somebody..."

"I did not fall asleep!"

"Not saying it was you," Elsa giggled, leaning back against the building's wooden exterior. Anna did the same, but she was nowhere near as calm. She was nearly shaking, and the damn alcohol wasn't helping.

"Err…what about the person? You said you knew Moors?"

_What did I say about not putting pressure on her? Gosh, Anna, you can think of a better topic than that!_

"Well…her student Aurora. We grew up together. At a group home."

It was the first time Anna had heard it from Elsa directly. Sure, she knew Elsa was an orphan from what Hans said occasionally, but the blonde never said it herself until now.

"I've never met Aurora before. You think we'll have a chance to chat with her?" Anna continued, but Elsa tightened her lips.

"Dr. Moors said Aurora has a time-sensitive experiment to perform this weekend, so she couldn't make it. Their lab is in the basement of the old bio building. It's a little far away, so I don't see them often either," Elsa explained, leaving it there.

They stood there in silence for a bit, Anna finishing her beer and getting a second one, while Elsa likewise seemed to have acclimatized to the bad taste and was chucking it down as well. Neither of them were heavy drinkers usually, but the alcohol-induced warmth in the autumn cold was comforting, along with that hazy sense of their surroundings, blurred by an impressionist's brush. The bonfire was distant, lending a dim, cheery glow, the other people also far away, their chatter a happy background noise to their ears. Anna took the chance to make a step closer to Elsa so they stood with shoulders touching.

If only she could listen to Elsa talk more, then it'd be perfect.

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you…say more? About yourself. About Dr. Moors. About Aurora and the group home?"

Elsa flinched. She didn't like where this was going, but at the same time, Anna's offer was enticing, especially to her half shutdown mind.

"It hurts…talking about it."

"I see," Anna replied softly, "Would you tell me later? When you're ready?"

Elsa nodded, "I may not be who you think I am though."

"It doesn't matter."

Anna reached over. This was it. She couldn't stand it any longer.

She pressed Elsa against the wall, gently, her face moving up to the taller girl's level. Their eyes met. She found herself sucked into the black of Elsa's pupils, mesmerized by the enchanting icy rims.

"I want to know you. Whoever you really are."

"Even..." Elsa was trembling, but there was also hope though, simmering at the very bottom of that dark pit that was her heart, "…even if I'm just ugly filth…"

"You're not!" Anna exclaimed, grabbing onto Elsa's face and shoving it into her own. Their lips crashed into each other. That was the first kiss they'd remember for the rest of their lives - a painful collision!

"Ow! What are you doing, Anna!?"

"Oops! I was supposed to…" she hesitated for a bit, but found that she had gone way too far anyways, "…to…to confess first."

Elsa was stunned wordless. _Crap. Look what you did. Who the hell confesses by saying she wants to confess? You've got to be the stupidest, most un-romantic person in the world!_

Anna's face was red as a goddamn stop sign now, but she tried (oh she did) to fix up the horrible confession, "Err…so…I really like you, Elsa. Because your hair is shiny as the moon and skin white as snow, lips redder than Snow White's and screw the ebony. I don't care about ebony. But even if you looked like a Douglas fir it wouldn't matter because you're the cutest little grad student I've ever met. I don't care that you have a stipend that puts you below the poverty line, I swear I'll pay for your Starbucks instead. Umm…and most importantly…I…I…I…think I might be in love with you…because…because…I don't know why, I just know!"

That was horrible.

Gosh, it wasn't even a goddamn question! What did she expect Elsa to say now?

"So…" Anna carried on, "Would you please be part of my consortium? We can be the first mammalian example of obligate symbiosis…"

_That-was-so-_**lame**_!_

"I…" Elsa didn't know what to say. Was she supposed to laugh? Was she supposed to cry? She settled for blushing.

It was awkward, but she liked it. How she wished she could've been the courageous one to confess her feelings for Anna instead. She didn't, because she couldn't phrase herself. She couldn't pinpoint a single reason why she was drawn to Anna, so she was afraid her feelings weren't even real. But now, she knew. She knew because Anna must've been feeling the same all along.

If Elsa must give reason for why she wanted to be with Anna, it was because…

…Anna never gave up on her. Ever.

For the first time, she thought, perhaps she could make it. She could forgive herself, conquer herself, and become a better person with Anna. For Anna.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Elsa asked timidly. She was still afraid, of her unworthy self, of Anna rejecting her in the future. But Anna didn't seem like she would anytime soon. In fact, she was very much confused by Elsa's question.

"What?"

"You don't really know me. Are you prepared to find out?"

Anna beamed, holding onto her, "I'm prepared to get this to work. Between both of us."

Elsa lowered her head. Maybe that was it. Going on your tippy-toes to crash into your love interest's face wasn't the best recipe for a first kiss.

But their second one would be good though.

**End of Chapter 13**


	14. Chapter 14

AN: Thanks Sahqo Med Peytte, theshameonme, Nayal, Kyoko-nyaa, PhantomGemini, ketbelle, Yuiiub, xo-j-e-i-j-a-h-xo, EleHime, brunhe, frankenjones, Lance58, Luniverse, Supremacy of Chaos, 23deecy, iwantaparrot1, el-sana, GhostofWintersPast, and the guests for their kind comments. Thanks a bunch! Once again, random thoughts and suggestions are all appreciated - just don't flame. I don't think we need to turn the Elsanna ship to an armoured aircraft carrier, haha.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 14

Sleeping by the side of your girlfriend was apparently a very distracting experience, Anna learned.

Elsa's shampoo tonight smelled of a winter forest, essence of pine mixed with a minty flavour reminiscent of fresh snow. It kept Anna awake. And unlike last night, there really wasn't anything stopping her from grabbing a fistful of the platinum hair and sniffing it like an idiot.

"Anna? What are you doing?" Elsa muttered, turning towards the redhead when she felt a tug in her hair. As much as she tried sounding annoyed, so they could both get a wink of sleep, Elsa couldn't. Anna's sheepish smile was just too damn cute.

"I like your shampoo," Anna answered, sticking her tongue out. Elsa nearly laughed, but held it back for a serious expression instead.

"Just my shampoo?"

"Yeah, your shampoo…wait, you said just? Just your shampoo?" Anna turned red, "Well, no. I mean, I love your shampoo, but I love you more…you're so…"

Elsa burst out laughing. Only then did Anna realize the trap.

"You're so mean, Elsa! You did that on purpose!" she playfully shoved Elsa, only to send her sprawling back onto the bed. Elsa blinked while looking up at her.

"Somebody is being abusive here, it seems…" Elsa said with a smirk.

Oh god, it was really sexy.

"Maybe somebody just likes being…I don't know…dominated?" Anna played along. She leaned over for another kiss. Was it their fifth? Sixth? She had long lost count.

It was much easier with the taller girl lying down, actually. Anna scaled Elsa's facial contours with her nose, relishing in the silken contact that was quickly becoming familiar to her. It was fun doing this with her eyes closed. Her senses all seemed heightened to the point that the friction between their skin felt like the lick of flames. She dipped her lips down and met with Elsa's maxilla. Oops, that was a little off! She wiggled her lips downwards, probably tickling Elsa along the way as she was now giggling. Anna knitted her eyebrows and kept at the task till she silenced Elsa when she finally held the older girl's upper lip in her mouth. She licked the soft, full flesh, sucked and pulled at it gently till she felt Elsa shudder underneath. Huh, she must be doing something right this time! Anna brought her teeth forward and starting chewing on Elsa's lip with feather touches. Elsa was caught between wanting to laugh at Anna's creativity or to moan at the exotic way everything was feeling. Her mind no longer functional, the decision blurred and she just managed to squeak.

The sound vibrated against Anna's sensitive lips and she finally couldn't hold back her chuckles. Pulling away, she laughed much to Elsa's irritation.

"You're laughing at me."

"Well…your squeak. You sure your mice don't sound like that?"

"Anna! You compared me to a mouse?"

"And a goldfish and a puppy and a kitten. I've done it all in my mind."

That earned Anna a light punch on the shoulder, but before Elsa could land another, Anna caught her arm and returned to kissing, this time sealing the blonde's mouth completely and begging entrance with her tongue. Elsa seemed surprised, her jaws clamped tight, but when Anna started licking her gumline, she relented.

Anna's tongue slipped through, and now she was caught not knowing what to do. _Shit! I should've watched an online tutorial for French kisses or something! Damn it, damn it, damn it!_ She decided to wing it anyway, dipping down to trace the bony undulations of Elsa's mouth under her tongue. At first, there was no response. Elsa still held her own tongue far back into her mouth as though waiting for something to happen. Then, as Anna brought her rough taste buds down harder on the thin mucosa, sliding it over the inner side of the mandible, Elsa arched forward into her embrace, fingers clawing into her back with a nervous, desperate grasp.

_Feeling good...? _Anna was inwardly smiling at the way she managed to please Elsa, but at the same time, her own body was now heating up, heart pounding, electric sparks flying down her frayed nerves. She was liking this just as much. Anna left the bottom of Elsa's mouth to explore the top instead, brushing over the hard palate, savouring the hints of cinnamon from Elsa's mouthwash mixed with remnants of hoppy beer. Further back, the palate gave way to soft, thick flesh. Like she was expelling an invader, Elsa's tongue came up to stop her advance and they brushed over each other, twirled, spun. Anna was finding her knees weak and she came down upon Elsa, hands steadying herself from their positions over the blonde's shoulders. Elsa pulled her closer and they were now fully touching while their kiss deepened.

Anna's twisted neck was starting to hurt though, and Elsa seemed like she was on the verge of gagging.

So, finally, they left each other's faces and opened their eyes once more to the darkness around them. Elsa was gasping for air and Anna was massaging the back of her neck.

It took three seconds. Three seconds later they were both laughing at each other.

"You didn't need to hold your breath, Els!"

"And you could move your body or my head to a comfortable position instead of twisting your neck, Anna."

"Okay, fine. We both need to watch a Youtube tutorial on kissing. Fair enough."

"Well…" Elsa blushed, "…or we just need to do more experiments. That's what scientists do, right?"

"You've got a really good point," Anna grinned, inviting herself into Elsa's embrace by a bear hug, "but first, you need to wear a biohazard bag."

"What?"

"We have to label your contagiousness! I obviously have no immunity against you."

Elsa rolled her eyes, "Very clever. So clever it can be considered the perfect definition of corny."

"But you know you like it, Els," Anna giggled.

They stayed like this for a while, Anna's hands around Elsa, Elsa's around Anna, thin sheets hastily thrown above them to keep their shared warmth from spilling into the blue-lit night. Elsa could feel Anna's happiness skip with her heartbeats, and Elsa's own joy was falling into its rhythm. She felt Anna's hand in her hair again, the younger's previously calm delight merging with newfound mischievousness.

"Are you up to trouble, Anna?" she asked. The younger giggled.

"More than once I get the feeling you're telepathic, but nope, not really trouble if you ask me."

"Then what are you planning with my hair?" Elsa asked, pointing at the strand Anna was pulling at.

"Not your hair. My hair."

"Excuse me? Have you donated my hair without my knowing?"

"Oh no, I don't mean to say I own you already," Anna paused and realized the phrasing wasn't quite right, but whatever. She continued, flushing, "I mean…that time you fell asleep in the dark room and I was braiding our hair together while you slept…okay, now I sound like a creep, but I was just thinking…I really like that streak of platinum in my hair, you know? So I kinda wanna dye a strand to match yours…"

Elsa was speechless. God, Anna was just…just…so damn cute! What could she say? Your strawberry blonde is just as beautiful? It's radiant like the red sands of Mars? Anything. Practically anything out of Elsa's mouth wouldn't even come close to Anna's adorable confession!

"Err…I can come along shopping for hair dye? I'll supply my hair for sampling purposes."

"Elsa!" Anna yelped in joy, tightening her hug. Gosh, she was about to crush the frail little thing under her, not that Elsa really minded, especially when Anna continued, "I can kiss you forever! You're just so…so sweet!"

That made Elsa beam. She pushed Anna away slightly and tickled the younger's nose, "Sure, you can kiss me anywhere, but only if you can correctly identify the bone underneath."

"What!? You're not my TA for anatomy, why would you do that!?"

"So you don't fail your anatomy elective. We still have a conference to go to, remember?" Elsa laughed, "Go on, start with the orbital process of the zygomatic."

"Fine. Right or left?"

Anna lowered herself with Elsa's pull. The older girl smiled. "Both."

* * *

The retreat ended at long last. Anna was actually quite unused to the absence of Elsa as she went about her daily activities - after all, she was an undergrad, so in addition to research she also had classes to take. Sure, anatomy class now seemed a little easier after the all-nighter she pulled with Elsa at the retreat, but _Intermediate Topics in Immunology_ wasn't getting any simpler. Tag on the third year biochem course she put off till her fourth year and she felt her head blasting apart from memorization.

Anna groaned, catching Kristoff's attention, "You alright, Anna? Is Merida bothering you too much?"

"Hey blondie! I wusn't even talk'in!" Merida answered. They learned during the retreat that they were in the same immunology class so they had been studying together since.

"No, no. Just information overload as usual," Anna muttered, holding her head in her hands. Gosh, she already didn't do all that well in the damn biochem midterm, scoring in the seventies. If not for acing anatomy, her parents would already be driving over to Arendelle just to give her a good, long scolding. She couldn't afford flunking immunology too!

"Yur stress'in out too much, Anna," Merida continued, "Ya need ta take'it easier."

"Oh, you won't understand," Kristoff answered in Anna's stead, waving off Merida's comment, "Anna's parents are what people call helicopter parents."

Anna glared, clearly not interested in continuing the topic. Kristoff looked apologetically to the ground at his careless slip while Merida pretended she didn't hear anything.

Not that she'd stop thinking about it though.

"Ya said Elsa helped ya with anatomy?" Merida asked. The totally platonic statement came out as rather suggestive to Anna's ears and she turned a shade redder. Kristoff quirked an eyebrow.

_Shit! He doesn't know about this yet!_ \- Anna thought, internally damning the blood flow to her face. She bit her lip.

"Apparently she took that as an elective too. Her friend was planning on med school so was taking it for prereqs, so she decided to go along…"

"Her friend!?" Kristoff asked in an incredulous tone. Great! Now he was off her back!

"Aurora from the Moors Lab. Moors is, you know, the woman who gave the keynote at the retreat?"

"Da one 'n only Maleficent, ya?"

"Yeah. So, her student, Aurora, was planning on med school before, but Dr. Moors somehow convinced her into grad school instead."

"How? By yelling at her for melting agar on a hot plate, or calling her stupid for not knowing where the emergency power plug is? I've heard Moors has done both with her undergrads…" Kristoff said.

"Well…you'll have to ask Aurora yourself. That's all I know," Anna shrugged.

"Anyways, I think ya shud git help from Elsa fur immunology too. She did hur undergrad in M 'n I too, huh?"

"Top student in history, to be precise," Kristoff added.

Anna wanted to groan again. Why were they back to the same topic?

"Well…I suppose I can get her help…" she muttered. That was enough to send her mind down the gutter. Imagine Elsa wearing a suit of post-its with CD markers on them, and she got to take each one off if she managed to say the cell type that expressed the marker. Oh god. She'd sure ace immunology, if she didn't die of epistaxis first.

"Excuse me while I jot down this…brilliant new research idea," Anna used the excuse to leave. Kristoff raised his eyebrow while Merida laughed.

"Wut is it?" she called to Anna's retreating figure.

"Next-generation haemostatic agent!" - _one that gets released in response to embarrassment, damnit!_

* * *

Studying with Kristoff and Merida was such a bad idea. If studying with Elsa was distracting, studying with them was no better, what with talking about her parents or her secret girlfriend or whatnot. She sighed, exiting the library to return to their lab building through the skywalk. It was probably better for her to steal a conference room for some quality silent study time - the budget cut left the building half empty so the rooms were usually not booked either way. She reached for the handle of the closest room to her right and turned it, walking in…

"So the commercialization plan…" Hans stopped mid-sentence, staring beyond Weselton at Anna who appeared at the doorway. Weselton turned around to look at the undergrad too, his eyes a mix of curiosity and annoyance.

"What have we got here? A stray cat?" When he was met with Anna's dazed gaze, he laughed at his own joke, "I saw you at the retreat. Can't remember your name, but you probably know mine. I'm Weselton. How can I help you, my dear?"

"I'm…uh…Anna," she strung together those words, saying sorry to Hans with her eyes, "I…I just need help learning how to knock before walking through a closed door. I always forget. I apologize for my intrusion."

With that, she closed the door behind her. Gosh, she felt so damn silly. Maybe Merida was right. She should just get Elsa's help for studying, then she wouldn't be stressed out over a stupid midterm and would actually be able to function.

* * *

Anna found Elsa in the dark room again.

The blonde seemed to be busy, but in good spirits. She was humming a tune to herself as she worked at the FACS machine, her coordinated movements timed with the rhythm of her song. She perked up a little when Anna entered the room.

"Hi," Elsa said, her voice as sultry as ever. Anna closed the door behind her and took a seat on the other chair, rolling it over to the blonde so she could hug her from behind. Elsa smiled. "My lab coat is dirty. You shouldn't touch it without gloves."

"Whatever. As though you've got ebola in the Arctic." She pulled Elsa closer, nuzzling her neck.

Elsa struggled to put on a new sample, wiggling out of Anna's grasp, "It tickles!" she complained, giggling. The reaction only fuelled Anna's actions, leading her to nibble on Elsa's ear. "Hey, hey, be gentle now. Human bites are the third most common mammalian bite in the States and are notorious for infections due to the polymicrobial nature of our saliva. I don't want to explain to an ER doc why my undergrad bit off my ear, okay?"

"I came to get your help with immunology, not emergency medicine…" Anna whined, lowering her head onto the side of Elsa's neck.

"And you have a TA for that course. That TA is not me," Elsa replied with hints of laughter. The wet attention on her neck was making her oh-so-happy - she couldn't help it.

But as suddenly as she had begun, Anna stopped.

"Oh my God!" Anna exclaimed. It was loud enough for Elsa to cringe.

"Don't shout in my ear," she said, "But what is it?"

"I was about to leave a hickey on my online course TA."

Elsa rolled her eyes, "Maybe you should've asked before trying, but despite your very unromantic way of seeking permission, I would give it. Go on."

"No, no…" Anna blushed, causing Elsa even more confusion, "What I mean is, this TA-student thing. Do we have to hide it?"

Elsa sighed. "You mean it'd sound like a stupid idea to everybody else? You aren't the one who has to worry. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who'd experience the embarrassment."

"No!" Anna was about to complain about how she was totally not an embarrassment, even if Elsa was just saying it in a playful way, but that wasn't the point. "I'm saying…is it, like…illegal?"

"What?"

"Illegal! Like…pedophilia!"

"Anna, you're twenty-one, I'm twenty-four. We can even vote."

"But, but…" she was getting frustrated at Elsa's lack of understanding, "is it against the university's law things? Would you get suspended?"

Elsa broke out laughing, "Is that what you're concerned about? That I'd get suspended?"

"Well, yeah, for…I don't know…going easy on your girlfriend in terms of marking."

"Right, and you still flunked your first two assignments which I've marked."

"Well, then for going hard on me!" Anna retorted.

"So long as you don't complain then," Elsa replied. Her sample forgotten, she leaned in for a kiss. Anna backed away pouting though.

"I'm serious."

"Well, I am too," Elsa replied, "There is no regulation banning student-TA romances. I will not go easy or hard on you, but if you are so concerned, I can just swap assignments with the other TA. Does that sound good to you?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"So it's no big deal that Merida and Rapunzel already know about us? Or if I tell Kristoff it'd be okay? And I can leave a hickey then?"

"Technically yes." Elsa was starting to worry about just how many people Anna planned on telling. Not that she had a problem with it, but yes, it would indeed be embarrassing.

Of course, Anna was not embarrassing. Elsa was just shy about this whole new ordeal.

It was hard to imagine at first, and she was still getting used to it, but Elsa Snow was no longer alone. The dark room was no longer her solo domain. Her science was now grander, ready to be shared with Anna and the world.

She grinned.

"You must think I'm silly," Anna said, noting Elsa's change of expression. The blonde just moved over for a peck on Anna's cheek.

"Silly, but really adorable."

"Well, same to you!"

It was a stupid argument, but Anna made sure she got back at Elsa for what she said. As Elsa continued her work, Anna protested by grabbing her head and turning it around for a full-contact lips-to-lips.

"If you keep disturbing me, I'll never finish. Then I won't be able to help you with immunology, or whatever," Elsa complained.

The idea of Elsa helping out in…creative ways was making Anna blush. She edged away, "Okay. Sure. Go on and finish your stuff first. I'll read here."

"Alright," she answered, going on with her experiment. But from her peripheral vision, she could see Anna wasn't concentrating at all. Maybe she needed a little…_help_ after all. She held back her chuckles, coughing to get Anna's attention.

"You got a cold?" Anna asked, smirking. Elsa snorted.

"I was clearing my throat to sing a song for you."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Wanna hear it?"

Anna gave an expression that totally said "be my guest", so Elsa started, ignoring the chuckles she knew would be coming.

_Born of CD34 and 59 combining  
This cell with both Thy and Kit has a potential worth mining_

_So dump down the IL 1, 3, 6  
GM-CSF and SCF  
See the stem cell grow and grow  
Split the cell apart  
And see the myeloid hearts_

Anna tried not to suffocate from laughter. Tears were gathering at the corner of her eyes as she patted Elsa's back for the brilliant job she was doing, teaching her haematopoiesis. It was the nerdiest thing she had heard, no doubt, but that was just what she needed.

Elsa was perfect. Simply perfect.

**End of Chapter 14**


	15. Chapter 15

AN: Sorry for being late. Real life sucks. I'm happy to get back to writing though, let the imagination overtake me, yay! Thanks for the wonderful support from reviewers Icy-Windbreeze, biological experiment, I'mAtAPayphone, Nayal, La5021, NightLuck, Lance58, bowarrow40, PhantomGemini, Kyoko-nyaa, 23deecy, Luniverse, iwantaparrot1, hubble36, Volchise, Supremacy of Chaos, GhostofWintersPast, Yuiiub, and all the guests from the last chapter. And of course, thanks for reading, following, and all the favourites – means a lot to me.

(This is the April 2015 revised version)

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 15

The dark room felt ominously empty today.

As of late Elsa had started to notice the shadows from whenever the microscope's shutter opened and excitation light spilled out into the room. Before, the coloured lighting eased her, focusing her senses on her research. But ever since Anna brought a more vibrant light to her life, this all felt rather dim in comparison.

At this very moment, Anna was probably finishing up the last of her midterm exams. They had promised to do something together afterwards, maybe catch up on the _Mythbusters_ episodes they missed, or do the "what's wrong with the picture" game with a cheesy sci-fi movie. Truth be told, Elsa was just as excited as Anna about the plans (well, she didn't leap up in joy and smash her head on a cabinet though, that was for sure), but currently, she was more concerned about other matters.

If Elsa had to make a list of three things she hated most about grad school, it'd be writing emails, calling people, and meetings.

Okay, they all pertained to communication, fair enough.

She admired Anna's perseverance in these regards, she really did. What with the thirty-some emails she sent to Brad? Elsa, on the other hand, was wondering if she should send a third after Weselton had ignored her first two.

One would think that ancient bag of skin and bones and a half-attached wig would care more about a manuscript submission, seeing as his whole point in extending his life seemed to be rooted on getting famous. Maybe he should just try Tumblr.

But as it stood, he gave no response.

Elsa even tried calling him! Imagine the horror of rehearsing what she wanted to say as she dialled his office number, only to be met with an answering machine. She then recited her speech again while dialling his lab number, and when his student answered, she found herself stuttering to even say his name. And that old geezer wasn't even in, damn it! What the hell was wrong with the world these days with profs making 150k a year while not even coming in for work? Then again, there were politicians…

"Hey Elsa!"

The door nearly flew open while the blonde hurriedly shoved her manuscript deep into a data pile. Anna appeared at the doorway with the biggest grin ever, waving around what could only be her immunology notes.

"Guess what?" Anna began, "It was on the midterm."

"What?"

"The song! CD34 and 59 combining…"

"Oh, the hSC markers."

"Yeah! How did you know that was gonna be on the exam? I totally love you for that!"

"It was on every darn exam ever since Dr. K took over the course during my era…" Elsa then quirked an eyebrow, "You love me for just that?"

"Oh, obviously not _just _that. I thought we've gone over this already!"

Anna came over and sat softly on Elsa's lap, reaching an arm round her shoulders. But just as she was about to deliver a kiss, she turned.

"What's up now, Anna?" Elsa groaned at her girlfriend's short attention span. Granted, she had already gotten quite used to it by now, but still…just what could be the distraction this time?

"Do I see a manuscript!?"

Anna was too fast, yanking the stapled document from the pile and waltzing away with it. Elsa chased after her, "Oh, just give it back to me!"

"No way!" She answered, jumping onto a tall stool so she could hold the manuscript higher than Elsa's reach. Elsa groaned.

"It's just a manuscript. Why are you making a fuss out of it?"

"And it's just a manuscript," Anna replied, "So why are _you_ making a fuss out of it?"

Elsa bit her lip. _Because this manuscript would never get through without Weselton consenting to its submission? _She didn't say anything though, not wanting to worry Anna.

But Anna could clearly read her expression, "What's wrong, Elsa?"

"Nothing. Just stressed out."

"About this?" Anna lowered the paper pile and read the abstract, this time without Elsa's protest. The blonde had given up, it seemed.

"Just Brad. This is already on the thirtieth edit and he's still demanding experiments."

Well, she wasn't lying. She just failed to mention that those experiments were far from the problem, seeing as the data was already collected and she was just nitpicking the layout of her graph. What about red and green for the axes labels just to waste Brad's grant money on printing colour figures? Not that he would notice since he was colour-blind. Elsa actually contemplated this if Brad didn't help out with her "Weselton Problem".

Yes, she had actually enlisted her PI's help in contacting the collaborator. This definitely spoke of her desperation, seeing as she knew it was fat chance the stoic iceberg relaxing in Thailand would give two shits about her issues. She still called him up just in case he cared enough about the publication, not Elsa herself of course, to shoot Weselton an email.

"Well, how about taking your mind off it for a bit?" Anna hopped down from the stool to pull at Elsa's arms, "You know…the promised post-midterm date?"

Elsa stiffened. The way Anna's forest teals tried to carve their reflections on her icy blues, or how Anna's callused thumb was making her forearm itch with the feather circles it drew – they were all extremely tempting but Elsa just couldn't keep her mind off work long enough to enjoy them. Anna was perfect. She was. And Elsa wanted to convey this to her through their relationship. But if they went on a date now, Elsa wasn't confident that she could make it work. She didn't have time to meticulously plan everything out to the same perfection as the perfection that Anna embodied, which was what Elsa thought she deserved.

"I'm sorry. Can we…"

"Postpone it?" Anna finished her sentence with a smile, "Fine, fine, Beautiful. I know you're busy."

"I am sorry, Anna. I am truly sorry."

Elsa slipped her arms out and squeezed Anna's hands with her own. Their gazes met once more. She wanted to stare, deep, into Anna, but she couldn't. Seeing her own expression off the mirrors that were Anna's eyes made her feel guilty. Damn it! She was supposed to be the older one, the one in control of her own life, but why couldn't she even get her shit together?

"Hey, it's alright." Anna replied, patting Elsa's shoulder. She then smirked, pulling something out from her bag, "You have to do me a favour though."

Elsa stared on sceptically, then when she realized what Anna was taking out, she gasped.

Eugene's boxers.

"What!? You still have them?" Elsa exclaimed.

"Well…I can't just go up to his lab to return them, can I?"

"Just give them to Rapunzel or something."

"But that's no fun, Elsa! This. Has. To be. Fun."

Elsa's annoyance seemed to transition to some sort of compliance as she sighed, "Fine. Get me some liquid nitrogen…"

* * *

By lunchtime, Anna had thought it over several times: everything that happened in the dark room.

Anna didn't want to admit it, but she was certainly feeling some sort of resentment towards how Elsa was obviously keeping her out of something.

So, during lunch time, Anna found herself sitting across Kristoff, absentmindedly picking at her pudding instead of sneaking food into the dark room to eat with Elsa. If Elsa needed her space, so be it.

Kristoff's brows were rising higher with each second Anna spent mutilating the soft, mango-flavoured object. He slumped down lower on his hard, plastic chair, carrot still dangling from his mouth. When he finally couldn't take it no more, he broke off a bite with a clean snap and set the rest on a napkin.

"Look, Anna, if you're upset at Elsa, go talk to her. Dragging me out for lunch doesn't exactly solve the problem."

"No! No, no, no, no. I'm not upset at her."

"Okay. Lovers' quarrel then."

"Lovers…what!?"

"I don't know when you're gonna tell me this, but it's pretty obvious you two are dating."

"Oh!" Her face lighted up red, "Well…ugh…I meant to tell you but I sorta forgot."

"Some kind of friend you are," Kristoff played it cool by taking another bite, "But never mind that. So, your quarrel?"

Anna rolled her eyes, "I can't quarrel with myself. Hello!"

Kristoff chewed the rest of the carrot in exasperation, "Just get to the point. You're not 'upset' but you clearly aren't particularly happy about this current situation involving your new girlfriend. Can we at least agree on this?"

Anna sighed, "Okay. Yes."

"Good. So instead of talking it over with her, you're implicitly trying to seek my help…"

"I so did not! You started the topic, Kris!"

"And you don't want to continue it?" he sat back, arms crossed, "Fine."

Anna blinked. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. "No. I mean yes! Yes, I want your help. Please."

If only Kristoff could tell the truth about how unfair he felt listening to Anna's love problems after she chose Elsa over him. Then again, he gave up before ever presenting himself as a choice. He couldn't blame her for this.

"Fine…" he dragged out the word, "So you're faced with a problem that you have to keep secret from Elsa."

"No! She's keeping things from me. That's the problem…"

Even before Kristoff gave his know-it-all smirk, Anna seemed to have identified something wrong. Was she self-absorbed or what? All this time she was groaning about Elsa keeping things locked inside, but she had been doing the same herself.

"…but I can't exactly say it in her face that I think she's lying, that something is bothering her and she should share it with me even if my only use is to give her a shoulder to cry on. Or can I? Can I tell her all people in relationships do that, or am I just delusional here?" she asked.

"Why not?"

"Exactly. People in relationships cry in a tangle of limbs and bed sheets. I learned as much from Netflix."

Kristoff snorted, "I didn't mean that, Silly. I mean you can tell it to her face. Like, tell her to open up. I think the whole dramatic crying thing is more of a metaphor though. It can be…well…therapeutic, I'd think."

Anna fell back on her chair, pudding fork lying there on the table while her limbs just dangled. "Really? This is it? Like I've been feeling like a jerk for being upset with Elsa for not trusting me enough and…"

"It's okay to be upset. It's okay."

She blinked, "Holy crap. I never thought of it that way. Kristoff, you really _are_ a love expert."

"Why, thank you for taking back your previous disbelief," he deadpanned. He really didn't have the kind of energy Anna was endowed with. Just look at her jump up, gather her stuff, ready to hop away. Kristoff just couldn't keep up.

"Thanks man!" she reached over for a quick hug, "You're my best bro."

Best bro.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He knew he should just let it go but his heart wasn't exactly cooperating.

Why did she have to be so beautiful? Not just the outside, but the inside…just so real, so pure, so perfect.

Damn. He couldn't stand how ugly he was in front of her. For a second, he wondered if that was how Elsa felt. That might be why she wanted to keep things away from her, keep Anna the bright and untainted person she was.

But Anna deserved to be trusted. She shouldn't need to be kept in a greenhouse. She could be wild, and still, she would be as beautiful as she had always been.

"Hey, wait up, Anna."

She turned. He had no way out now. He had to say what he intended.

"Elsa might be having some problems with her manuscript," he continued, "I heard her calling Brad up to help her get Weselton. He's one of the authors but he's not responding, something like that."

Anna widened her eyes, speechless. Kristoff just smiled as reassuringly as he could, "Go on, Girl. Help her out. I don't know too much about this, but I think that's what relationships should be about. Facing things together, good or bad."

The Anna of his imagination, the naïve, unknowing Anna, the Anna who would forgive anything, never fight back - that fictional Anna could remain in Kristoff's heart, he concluded. But who Elsa had was the real Anna. The one who was, and would continue to stand by her side.

She should learn to grow up with that real Anna. They'd have to drag their soles through dirty politics and other challenges in life, because that's just how it is, the very definition of being alive. But consider the word "untainted". Wouldn't it only have meaning if there were something threatening to drag them down, but they still managed to support each other and overcome?

"Thanks," Anna uttered, nodding, "I owe you."

He saw a diamond in her fading figure, formed from heat itself, blasted from the Earth's mantle to become the toughest gem. But that alone wouldn't be enough to realize her potential. The experience of being worn down and carried by glaciers to finally sit in rotting alluvial deposits until at last reborn as a flame that cast rainbows in the sun…

…only then, would she become the greatest she could be.

* * *

Anna walked purposefully into the lab.

Breathe, stride, swing her arms, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Before she tried to know Elsa, she needed to know herself. She was not the smartest or most social person out there, but what she had was energy. She couldn't look very far ahead, but if she set a simple goal, she strived for it, directly, climbing walls and swimming across metaphorical rivers if she must.

That was what she could offer to Elsa.

She needed to show her this. Earn her trust. Instead of sulking over how Elsa was treating her, she should change Elsa's mind with her actions.

Great, this head-on plan suited her much more than hiding her feelings, as she had done previously.

The first temptation to move her off-track was Hans, who waved at her when she entered. She was immediately reminded of the last time she saw him during the incident when she pushed open the conference room door without knocking – he was talking to Weselton at the time.

Should she go up to him and ask him about Weselton? Should she get him to help her get in contact with their collaborator so she could solve Elsa's problems?

She ended up saying nothing, just waving back before disappearing down the hall to where the dark room was.

Elsa didn't need someone sticking a nose into her business. She needed strong support. Strong, continuous support.

Just what Anna could give.

She wouldn't do it alone anymore. Neither would Elsa. They would do this _together_.

"Hey," she called as she went into the room. Elsa was sitting there, staring at the computer monitor while her fingers toyed with the phone cord. Surprised by Anna's presence, her hand jerked, sending the handset tumbling down to smack the table leg below.

When Elsa bent over to retrieve it, Anna was already there, grabbing the handset just a second before her hand could reach it, resulting in a fleeting touch of skin. She smiled, setting it back onto the base, "Elsa, I want to talk."

The blonde straightened up to put some distance between them, eyebrows furrowed with hesitation, "What is it?"

Anna set herself down on the spare chair and rolled it over so they were facing each other. Elsa avoided her eyes, but she continued to look directly at her, "About your manuscript. Kristoff told me you had some problems with one of the authors, Weselton."

The blonde gulped subconsciously – anything to still the awkward confrontation, "It's okay, Anna. I can handle it."

"I know you can. You will," Anna set her hands on top of Elsa's, warmth pouring into the cold. She squeezed them gently in her palms, drawing them closer, "But I know you're having a hard time now - I can tell. I'm not trying to stick my head into your business, but…please, don't lie to me about how you feel. I want to share it all with you. Not just your happiness. But your sadness, frustration, anger – I want it all, is that okay?"

Elsa was struck with no words. The ensuing silence was calm, filled with Anna's comforting stare and her wonderful, wonderful warmth. Her mind blanked, molten.

Why?

Why would such a wonderful person want this?

She gave up on coherent sentences and just muttered whatever came, "All my life I've been bombarded with others' feelings. I've never wanted it. I could be having a great day and then some _stranger_ I knew nothing about would come walking by, crying, and I'd feel tears in my eyes because this real, real pain would strike my heart, like why? Why me? Why the hell can I feel things like this, it's not even scientific! I just…"

The feels radiating out from the room with a balcony, escaping even when their owner was trapped there in his own sorrow – she remembered them clear as day. She remembered how they gripped her with an iron grasp.

She hated being on the receiving end.

So she just couldn't understand why anyone would want to feel her present wretched self, the ugliness, the resentful, vengeful darkness that threatened to engulf her.

How could Anna volunteer for this? How could she?

She paused, noting the slight confusion set on Anna's features, "Sorry. I'm really sorry. You probably have no idea what on Earth I'm talking about."

"I'm still listening," was all Anna said, "Go on."

"Really?"

"Really. Please. Tell me all of it."

"I…" Elsa mumbled, eyes to the ground in shame, "Why? Why are you willing…wanting to share even the most hideous feelings in my heart?"

"They're not hideous, Elsa," she held Elsa's face and turned it towards herself, "They're who you are."

"Then doesn't that make me hideous?" she said forcefully. It was strange. It was strange how she could be so frustrated even when Anna's gentleness moved inside of her. Her mind was crying out how she didn't deserve her empathetic abilities now, "I'm stupid. I'm so short-sighted. I can't see beyond this…this box of others' recognition. Everyone thinks I don't care but really I care so much about what others think of me that I don't even dare step out of this damn room because I'm scared of their judgement. I'm jealous. I'm angry. I think I've put in a lot of work and I'm just fucking angry that Weselton is pulling this shit on me! How…how can you bear with me like this? How can you want to share this soot black side of me? I don't…"

"Don't get it?" Anna finished for her, pulling her into an embrace. She stroked Elsa's back, up and down, up and down. The ragged breathing settled to hiccup-like sniffs. "I do get it because all you said is just…humanity. We all can feel this way."

She released Elsa and saw her curl up in her chair. All of a sudden, the older girl looked so much smaller, weaker, vulnerable, a huge change from the authoritative TA marking down her reports or the brilliant speaker engaging an auditorium of audience. She was just a young woman like any other.

"I look silly," Elsa murmured, digging her blunt nails into her upper arms as she hugged herself. Anna giggled.

"Just as I like it."

Elsa's frown turned into an indignant pout, her hand reaching over to shove Anna, "Not funny."

"Fine. Fine," Anna smirked, "Then let's get serious. You can say no if you think I'm meddling too much. I won't mind, I promise. If not, I say we start a battle plan against Weselton. What do you think?"

The uncertainty of the past week faded. Elsa didn't know sharing was all it took to give her this much power, this much control.

She would deal with him. Weselton, Brad, whoever else stood in her way, because Anna was here. Anna was beside her.

She smiled, "Alright. Let's begin."

**End of Chapter 15**

* * *

_The story of Eugene's boxers will have to wait till next week :P_


	16. Chapter 16

AN: Thanks t3l4m0n, zzzeus11, A'Svstheworld, merlotblanc1, ChillinLikeaVillain, ElsaTheSnowQueen2, TheElementHero, Aud17, 23deecy, anon-someone, DemonEagle87, GhostofWintersPast, animeninjafan, MicSham, WarThunder, Luniverse, I'mAtAPayphone, frankenjones, el-sana, Kyoko-nyaa, Yuiiub, and the guests for their kind comments. Sorry I took so long to update - I'm sure everybody already forgot what this is about. Anyways, here is a little summary of what went on thus far:

_After Anna confessed to Elsa at the annual departmental retreat, the two start dating, but things get in the way as Anna deals with midterms and Elsa struggles to submit a manuscript with one of her coauthors, Dr. Weselton, refusing to participate in the submission process. With Kristoff's help, Anna confronts Elsa and helps her overcome her desire to always appear perfect. Together, they come up with a plan to deal with Weselton..._

I've also revised the first 15 chapters, in case you're wondering about minor changes in the text. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. With that said...

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 16  
  
The Moors Lab was a classic Frankenstein-style lab at the bottom of the non-air-conditioned basement of the old bio building. While huge in comparison to most labs, it was dark, damp, and positively boiling even in October.

"It's beside the boiler. Literally," Diaval, the lab manager and sole post-doc, commented dryly as though capable of reading Anna's mind. When they passed by the tanks of Koolaid placed deliberately under the floodlights at the entrance, with bubbling dry ice within, Diaval added, "We have to conform to the popular opinion that we're mad scientists, or so Mally says..."

Reading Anna's surprised expression, Elsa smiled, "Nothing much has changed since I last visited. Dr. Moors is as charismatic as I've always remembered."

Anna wondered if there was something wrong with Elsa's language skills, or she was just hopelessly trying to sound polite, but either way, she was quite sure that "charismatic" wasn't the right word to use here.

"Well, we've added a popsicle generator," Diaval replied, filling a paper cup with Koolaid from one of the tanks then sticking a popsicle stick in the center. He then dipped the outside of the cup in liquid nitrogen, and after half a minute, took it out, the Koolaid within flash-frozen to a popsicle, which he handed to Anna. "Here. Peel away the paper cup and you have an orange-flavoured popsicle. We also have grape and strawberry if you prefer."

Weird didn't even begin to describe what Anna was experiencing.

After Anna was done with her popsicle, they entered through the doors and crossed into the actual lab area which had orange linoleum flooring rather than the standard white, covered with dust bunnies the size of her fist. Instead of benches, everything seemed to be conducted atop cabinets of various colours, lined with layers of newspaper. It was no wonder the reading on the analytical balance kept changing even with nothing being weighed - strange why Dr. Moors even bothered purchasing it. Then again, she probably inherited it from the previous PI of this lab, along with the twenty-some ancient stereoscopes sitting in various degrees of disarray.

Diaval smirked when he caught Anna's eyes wandering, "We have an average of eight stereoscopes per lab member. If you decide to join us, that would bring down the average to six."

"You are not trying to spirit away my undergrad, Diaval," Elsa complained.

"Just trying to test her mental math," he replied before turning the corner to enter the so-called tissue culture room. It was so dirty that they could probably just grow bacteria though. "And here we have the remaining member of our lab besides Mally and myself. Aurora King, our one and only grad student."

Aurora sure looked younger than she was, even by grad student standards. Her hair was a bright gold like the sun, though it was only dimly illuminated by the fluorescent lighting of the biosafety cabinet, and her eyes were a deep blue with a mischievous twinkle that gave them the appearance of sapphires. The casual top she wore matched the colour of her eyes, complementing the navy of her jeans. As would be expected of the sloppiness of the lab, she did away with the white coat thing, only donning a pair of black gloves as she worked with a liquid that appeared rather ominously similar to blood.

"That's Mally's blood, by the way," Diaval noted to Anna with a smirk. Anna couldn't help taking a step away, a weird expression filling her face. He dramatically threw his hands to the sides, "I mean, what can we do? We're so poor that we can't afford to pay ten bucks to compensate for our volunteers' time!"

"Oh, Diaval, stop teasing her," Aurora retorted, voice heavy with a playful, yet elegant accent. She ripped off the gloves from her hands and threw them into the trash can before offering them to Anna for a shake, "Aurora King, nice to meet you, Anna."

"It's most definitely my pleasure," Anna replied, taking the hand which gave her a good, hearty shake. One would think Aurora's skinny form would hint at a weak constitution, but heck, that hand shake nearly rattled Anna's bones! Did she grow up on a farm or something?

"We do pay our volunteers for their time, it's just that nobody wanted to volunteer as my first victim today. I just completed my phlebotomy course on the weekend."

"Oh dear..." Anna muttered, then took a look around the empty lab, "Is Dr. Moors alright?"

Diaval burst out laughing, earning him a glare from a blushing Aurora, "Hahaha, your undergrad is golden, Elsa! Oh, don't worry about Mally, she's fine...just chucking down a Häagen-Dazs to compensate for the blood loss."

"Diaval! I only drew a bit extra because the needle slipped the first time and I spilt some! You're making it sound like I almost killed her!"

"Who killed who?" the deep voice that sounded from the entrance to the tissue culture room startled Anna, who turned abruptly towards the newcomer. Mally Moors stood there, tall and slim like a withering tree of dark wood. In contrast to the black suit she was wearing, her skin was so pale it appeared almost white, and her golden eyes glared down from deep sockets, made more apparent by the protruding bones on her cheeks. "What have we got here? Another little beastie?"

"Mally, don't call our guest Beastie. She's Anna, Elsa's undergrad," Aurora complained. If Anna heard right, she was pretty darn sure Diaval just whispered, "Somebody's jealous" and snickered.

"Anna Summers, nice to meet you, Prof. Moors," Anna quickly blabbered an introduction and offered her hand for a shake. Mally Moors took her sweet time to place her ice cold hand atop of Anna's, then clasped it in a bony grasp before giving a light shake.

"Welcome to my lab. We're always looking for sacrifices...I mean, students."

"Just who got sacrificed today?" Diaval destroyed the mood with his timely retort, only to become the receiving end of that golden glare. He covered his giggles and looked away, "Sorry."

"So Elsa," Aurora cut into the conversation before "Maleficent" could turn Diaval to a raven or something with that glare of hers, "Did you come looking for Mally? Unless you actually came to grab lunch with me?"

"Actually...uh...yes...for Dr. Moors," Elsa muttered apologetically, "But I do have something for you."

Elsa dug into her coat pocket and fetched out a paper airplane which she handed to Aurora, "...for your cousin, actually. Maybe...this year, we can go see him...together."

There was a lengthy silence that hung in the atmosphere, but not one that was unpleasant. Anna could feel a sort of tension being lifted, and Aurora, Diaval, and Mally Moors all seemed relieved by this turn of events.

"Alright, let's go together," then, looking at the undergrad Elsa brought along, Aurora smiled knowingly, "With Anna too?"

"...Yes," Elsa replied, then gave Anna a gentle push towards Aurora, "Please tell her. About everything."

"You sure you shouldn't be the one to say it?" Aurora asked in response.

"Don't worry. I've found the courage. But...I want her to know objectively what happened, not my skewed perception of it. I think you, and maybe Diaval too, should be the ones to let her know."

"As always, you have too many silly worries, My Dear," Diaval replied, but then crossed his arms and nodded, "But very well, we'll tell her. You go on and talk to Mally. She has a meeting in an hour, so you'd best get going."

"Alright, Princess. We'll talk in my office. I haven't got all day."

With that, Elsa followed Mally off to her office, leaving Anna with Aurora and Diaval. Aurora asked them for three minutes to put her blood samples into the centrifuge, then slipped off her second pair of gloves and washed her hands before turning back to face them, "Good, now it's time for a 45 minutes coffee break. Think we've got enough time?"

"Got time, but not coffee," Diaval shrugged, "Koolaid it is."

"Seriously? Again?"

As they sat down on the rooftop, facing the campus landscape below, they ended up with Koolaid popsicles in each of their hands again. Anna seemed contented enough though, licking the grape-flavoured one this time. Aurora sighed, "At least Anna isn't sick of it yet. We should get more people to visit our lab just to finish those darn tanks."

"I told Mally to get tanks of beer instead. I'm sure even without invites, the few people working across the hall would help us clean off a tank or two easy," Diaval said, sticking the popsicle into his mouth as he faced the skies, "Drinking beer on the roof...those were good times. You, Elsa and Phillip were just kids."

Aurora took the time to remember those times when she was little, bright Friday afternoons, lazy heat searing the cityscape from where sunset touched the horizon. White coats soaked golden with the light, flying behind the adults' back as they sat there on the edge, drinking to the failed experiments of the week. Diaval, in his silly baseball cap and childish hoodie, would try to imitate them, only earning Mally's cackling laughter. Aurora and her cousin and the quiet but cheerful Elsa would run across the rooftop playing some sort of tag game. Oh, her cousin, always the adventurous one. He'd climb up that ladder to the reservoir and from there, stand gazing out to as far as he could see. It was like everything stood beneath him, waiting for him to conquer them. Phillip King was his name, but more than once they flipped the order to King Phillip. Certainly, that was more than fitting for a personality like his.

"You see, Anna. This was the old lab where my dad, uncle and aunt worked at. Mally and Elsa's dad too. They all used to work here. Diaval was just a little college freshman at that time."

"At least I actually worked here. You, Phillip and Elsa were just visiting. Oh, you brats, always coming in laughing and shouting and I have to make sure you don't pick up a bottle of HF and start throwing it at each other. Damn, if that happened, I don't know if you'd be the one to die a slow agonizing death or me!"

"Well, I work here now, don't I?" Aurora chuckled before turning to Anna, "You know, there was cheap housing on campus for post-docs, so we all lived here back in those days. What better to do but come visit Fridays after school? Especially my cousin, Phillip, both his parents were here, so it was natural for him to come rather than stay home alone."

"You must be close then?" Anna asked, imagining a younger version of her grad student stumbling over the uneven roof tiles, at some point watching over the same scenery as what she was seeing now. Aurora smiled.

"I guess. Then, my dad became a PI and they all moved to a lab off campus, well, except Diaval because he just got into grad school at that time. It was a level 3 lab, so we couldn't come and go as easily as before. We still visited at each other's homes, but it just wasn't the same. How I would've liked it if we can all come back here now and do the same things as we did back then. But...it's impossible."

Before Anna could reply, or Aurora could say more, Diaval placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder and took over, "He passed away. Phillip."

Anna couldn't say she was surprised. This was the tension she felt back at the lab. This was the tension that had hung between Elsa and herself since they first met. The paper airplanes, hundreds, thousands of them, stuffing those jars in Elsa's room - they were addressed to him, he who had long passed beyond the reaches of this world.

Though he might've been long gone, Anna knew, his presence still lived on in those who were once close to him.

"You know the Leah Virus?"

Diaval's question interrupted Anna's thoughts. She dug through her memories and found that she vaguely recognized the name, "It's an exotic virus, right? I think there was an outbreak of it when I was little, if I remember correctly."

"That's right. It's endemic in the south. During the Isles Civil War ten years ago, refugees carried it with them to Arendelle where it was first isolated and identified...by the King Lab."

"My father was the one to name it Leah Virus after my mother who passed away from it. She was a nurse and it's thought that she contracted the virus while working with patients from the Isles," Aurora added.

"I'm sorry..." Anna said.

"Don't be. It's been so long ago, I don't think I need to be sad about it anymore. I'd like to think of my mom as an unsung heroine, you know? Helping those with the disease, and using her experience to help solve the mysteries of the virus. She might not have beaten it herself, but I think she contributed to helping many others who wouldn't have made it if not for people like her."

"I think we all learn to let go eventually," Diaval continued for Aurora, "But still, I've got to admit, the virus turned our lives upside down. All because of a tube of blood that arrived at the King Lab. Mally told me they thought it was malaria back then. There were so many cases of malaria the usual analytical labs were all swamped with samples to test, so the King Lab stepped in since they had a new quick assay for diagnosing it. Turned out that particular sample wasn't malaria, it was something much more infectious and deadly than they had expected, and they paid a hefty price for their negligence: Aurora's parents, Elsa's dad, Phillip's parents...and then, Phillip himself."

"He passed away from the sequela of viral encephalitis," Aurora's words were short and succinct that they gave a sort of finality to what she said. Diaval nodded.

"Major depression, they say he took his own life, but those who say so don't know anything. The virus took his life. Maybe it wasn't through the most conventional means, but when my parents took him into the group home with Aurora and Elsa, he was already just a shadow of who he had been. I refuse to believe that was him. It wasn't him. By then, the virus had done its damage on his mind, and the next two years that he lived, he was pained by it day and night. I wish we could've done something for him. We all did. But I suppose, the only one who managed to reach him at all was Elsa."

Aurora could remember the sun-kissed features of her cousin, brown hair, brown eyes, etched deeply onto his handsome face. Yes, she recalled Phillip as beautiful, a few years her senior, always looking out for Elsa and herself. The beautiful part was most definitely his heart, valiant, brave, it gave strength to what would otherwise be just the flimsy toy sword made of rolled-up newspaper he always carried with him. The way he pointed it towards the heavens, his other hand clasped on the handle of his cardboard and construction paper shield, followed by his full laughter that rang across the campus - it was as though Aurora could still hear it between whispers of the wind. He was playful, intelligent, lively, a friend and role-model, yet bit by bit these parts of him fell apart with the disease he suffered. Diaval was right. The secluded boy at the group home was no longer him. It was his suffering, and neither Diaval nor Aurora herself could do anything to ease it.

She held onto the paper airplane Elsa just gave her, tracing its edges with her fingers, "We knew something was wrong by then. Phillip was still polite and mild-mannered, but he no longer smiled. It didn't seem like he didn't want to. He simply couldn't. His smile was stolen from him."

Diaval held his popsicle stick between his teeth, leaning back on both arms to crane his body upwards. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, dark marbles trained onto the blues and whites above. As a breeze swept stray strands of hair away from his eyes, he pointed upwards towards where his vision had cleared. "That," he said, "was all that was left to numb his pain. The skies. He'd spend the entire day staring at them. We don't know what he saw in them, so we just gave him the room with the large balcony that looked towards the west. When the sun set in the afternoon, its light would spill through the white drapes to where he sat by his bedside. That way, even if he didn't want to see us, there'd still be something to keep him company. We had hoped the sunshine would've been enough."

Aurora handed Anna the paper airplane. It felt light in her hands, but heavy in her heart. Aurora gave her a light pat on the thigh, "Go on, open it. See what Elsa wrote, for herself, and for Phillip."

"But...should I really be the one to...open it?"

"Of course. She wants us to tell you about her past, and you want to know, right? Well, that's the answer. During all those times when Phillip was silently bearing the agony of his diseased mind, Elsa was the only one who could reach him. She sent him these paper airplanes, hundreds, thousands of them, never giving up on him even when she, herself, was suffering from the loss of her family. And even after he passed, she still continued, filling the balcony, maybe because of guilt, maybe because of pain. She probably blamed herself for not having done more, not having prevented his ultimate end that she long foresaw. But this airplane, this one in your hands, Anna, is probably the last, because maybe she has finally seen it, the solution to that question that has always plagued her since that time."

The question that had always plagued her? Anna couldn't quite understand, but when she unfolded the paper airplane, she knew what it meant.

_\- All those times when I thought I understood you. I never did. For you are you, I am me. I should've just stood by your side, and no matter whether it would've helped, shared with you my joy of being alive. But I couldn't. I now realize, and I apologize, for not having been the friend I should've been. I don't know whether this would reach you from where you are, but let me say this anyway, even if it's just for myself: I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do to remedy my mistake, but I will not make it again. I will be strong, like you've always taught me. I hope when I finally visit you shortly, I can show you this belated smile of mine. Thank you for everything, Phillip. With love, always, Elsa._

She knew, when she couldn't bear face Phillip, her cowardice had hurt him. Yet how, how could she make up for this guilt?

She couldn't. Nothing she could do would bring him back.

"May I?" Anna asked. Aurora nodded, and both Diaval and she looked far into the distant mountains as Anna pulled her arm back then threw it forward, the refolded paper airplane slipping out her fingers and into the air. It escaped the confines of the roof, drifted off into empty space, made an arc across the skies and dipped downwards, but they didn't bother looking where it fell - there was no meaning to it.

"You saw that?" Mally asked, spotting the white object dancing in the distance outside her office window. Elsa's eyes were trained on it, then they closed, and she nodded.

Elsa knew, the paper airplane would never travel to the end of the horizon. It'd just fall, maybe on a campus sidewalk, then get trampled and swept with the fallen leaves into a rotting trash pile somewhere.

But those words, those promises were finally said. Elsa could finally let go.

If she were to do something for Phillip, it would be to honour him for the person he once was.

Strong, proud, a true friend.

He would always be remembered, not for his tragedy, but for the strength he had taught her, those many years ago. The life he couldn't live, she would live it for him, so would Aurora, Diaval, Mally, everyone...

_"I wanna be a scientist like my mom and dad! 'Cause there's so much to this world...I wanna see it all, and understand it all!"_

"Mally."

"Yes?"

"I'll answer your question one more time. I'm sure. I'm absolutely sure. I want to collaborate with your lab. If Brad refuses, I'll quit and join you instead."

Mally Moors met the hard gaze of the young woman who was once just a child before her eyes - the gaze no longer appeared brittle as ice, though still as sharp and clean, it now shone with a steel determination. At this, her thick lips curled to a smirk, "Very well, Elsa. I will grant your request."

**End of Chapter 16**

_The paper airplane twirled and twirled, then catching a gust, made a final glide._

_Its landing made a crisp sound on the second-floor balcony lunch table. Hans Southern squinted to his side, and spotting the object, he picked it up and gave it a nostalgic smile._


	17. Chapter 17

AN: Thanks wannasalad, sedryn, animeninjafan, Justherefortheride, 23deecy, GhostofWintersPast, theAbsentMindedArchitect, S Anon, elfspirit7, Kyoko-nyaa, frakenjones, Tigger, t3l4m0n, and Shadowfax321 for their kind comments in the last chapter. Life has been going fine for me, I guess. There is the usual office politics (or is it lab politics?) but my thesis is going okay so I don't think I have anything else to complain about. I really don't know if grad school counts as studying or working. In theory, I suppose it's studying, but in reality, our PI is pretty much our boss and we work somewhat like a hybrid between research techs and real scientists and churn out papers as a work requirement. Well, I suppose I write enough about grad school in this story that you can probably get a general feel of what it's like.

Anyway, I think it took me long enough to update that I should just stop ranting and let you read. I reread a little just to make sure I remember what was going on (sorry, that probably means you can't remember either), and I thought I'd probably do another edit of the entire fic after I complete it in another 5-10 chapters or so. Come to think of it, some of those nerdy jokes feel a little forced, so I might take them out or replace them somehow eventually.

Summary thus far:_ After Anna's awkward confession during the departmental retreat, Elsa and Anna started dating. While Anna was busy studying for midterms, Elsa struggled to get her manuscript submitted since her coauthor and committee member, Dr. Weselton, refused to communicate with her. With her friends' help, Anna confronted Elsa and convinced her to open up about her problems. As a first step, Elsa decided to seek a collaboration with the Moors Lab and brought Anna along so she could hear from Aurora and Diaval about her past as an orphan. It was revealed that Elsa's wish for isolation stemmed bring her guilt in failing to save her childhood friend, Phillip, from committing suicide._

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 17

It had always struck Hans as pretentious for scientists to fill their desks with piles of journal articles and old textbooks from their undergrad days.

Did they ever read them? Sure they did, back when they were studying for their comprehensive exams. Now, they lay there just to collect dust.

Of course, Hans was not unlike them. As an expert in manipulating others, he found that gaining others' trust started with fitting in. It was the subtle similarities that got to people, made them feel you're one of them, and thus can be confided in. As such, Hans' desk had his personal pile of papers dating back to the first written mention of the term "genomics", to the latest issue of _Nature Genetics_ that came with his lab's subscription.

But hidden amongst them were other books, and if one were thorough enough in their observation, they might notice that these books were particularly worn at their corners, yet ironically clean on their covers. Books entitled _Brave New World_ and _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ and an English translation of Voltaire's _Candide_...if Elsa Snow were to come out of her dark room and take a look through the collection, perhaps she'd even laugh and say, "How fitting." Such was Hans' taste in books, and his taste in life - he'd like to think that the world was not a bleak and hopeless place, rather, all worlds, imaginary or not, were quite like games, and those that learned the rules and twisted them to their favour would succeed in winning.

"You know, you're an asshole," Kristoff's gruff voice sounded from beside him, breaking him from his thoughts. Hans lifted his eyes from the manuscript Weselton sent him, turned, and returned Kristoff's gaze.

"I'll take that as your way of saying 'Good morning', Christopher."

Kristoff ignored him, continuing, "Anna told me you met with Weselton a few days ago."

Hans rolled his eyes, "And that is of concern to anybody else aside from Dr. Weselton and myself?"

Kristoff folded his arms and trained his best glare at Hans, "Yeah, be a coward and fuck around the subject all you want instead of just admitting it straight up. Tell me it's a coincidence Elsa can't get a hold of Weselton when you are meeting with him. Like how is it that you have her manuscript on your desk? Tell me all about it, Bro."

So this was what it was going to be about, huh? Just when he thought the Snow Queen was starting to show some improvement in developing that horrible personality of hers.

"Okay, Christopher, so you are suggesting that I am orchestrating some complex conspiracy against her. Even if that were the case, should it not be her confronting me? Do you not find it funny that you come in and throw profanities at me first thing in the morning?"

He stood up and walked up to Kristoff, shoving Elsa's manuscript into his hands, "If you want to meddle with her business go right on ahead. I do not have time for your little games, as I actually do have work to complete."

With that said, he did not wait for an answer, proceeding down the hall to the incubator where he left his streaked plates to grow.

It had been two days. Two damn days and nothing was growing aside from mould. Seeing as nobody was nearby to witness his misery, he tossed the plate into the biohazard bin, striped off his gloves, and rested his forehead on his bare hands in an attempt of clearing his mind. Damn it. How the hell could Elsa construct entire libraries so quickly while it took him weeks and he still couldn't transform a single strain?

This was yet another indicator of how the world was not fair. Kristoff would probably chide his line of thought as worthless jealousy. Elsa was born smart, so she deserved her success. Hans was born with less scientific talent, so he should just accept that he would never compare.

But Hans was born with the talent of using others, so why couldn't he exercise that advantage?

Perhaps "fair" wasn't the word he was really thinking of initially. It should be "equal". The world was not made equal, so it was up to each individual to discover his own strength and use it to accomplish his goals.

And it wasn't just his goals. Did Kristoff not realize that Hans wasn't even the one to make the first move in the predicament Elsa was facing currently?

Long before Hans' involvement, Elsa's project was destined to be held up like this, because while she was a brilliant researcher, that didn't make her a brilliant scientist. If she were to run her own lab, it'd go bankrupt before she could ever obtain tenure.

Because the truth was: she was self-absorbed and emotionally-stunted, and she hadn't changed the slightest bit since way back then...

* * *

_That day, Diaval came over for dinner._

_The sun set upon fallen autumn leaves, painting the skies golden. Phillip was outside, sitting on the front steps, eyes staring off into the flaming horizon._

_"Good day, Sir!" Hans greeted with a salute, his small, auburn head topped with the army cap Diaval gave him as part of his costume for upcoming Halloween. Diaval put his large hand atop the cap and rubbed Hans' head from behind it._

_"Great to see ya doing well, Kid," he answered. The woman beside him was less patient. Dr. Mally Moors was a rising star in the biotechnology field, but Hans got the feeling that was not exactly why she was so unapproachable. Tall, slim, skin a pale white against raven black hair, she was intimidating just standing there, let alone the fact that she was probably much better dealing with microbes than dealing with humans. At the moment, she was glancing around the group home's living room, looking extremely irritated probably because she couldn't find whatever she came searching for._

_"You seen Elsa?" Diaval continued the conversation. When he caught Hans' curious eyes surveying Mally's annoyed expression, he added, "You see, Mally here wants to take Elsa down to visit her dad."_

_"Elsa's dad!?" Hans almost blurted out the words "is alive?" after that, but held onto them just in time before Mally's glare could burn holes in him. Diaval held Mally back by her arm and whispered something in her ear that seemed to have made her calm down a bit, then turned back to face Hans._

_"So yeah, if you know where she is, maybe you can tell us to save us the trouble of searching everywhere?" He then bent down to Hans' level and gave him a smirk, "I mean, you probably wouldn't want Mally finding that porn stash of yours under your bed..."_

_"I don't have such a thing!"_

_Hans lowered his head. That stuck-up new girl had a dad, but she still dared look so depressed in front of everyone who, despite not having any parents left, were trying to cheer her up. How self-centered was that?_

_"She locked herself in her room," Hans tried sounding not so resentful, but being so young at that time, he could not contain his sentiments. This time, Mally did glare at him, her voice sharp and chilling as she responded._

_"She has a damn good reason for that, and regardless of what happened in your life to make you so bitter, you do not understand her and you have no right to judge her either."_

_\- And you understand what happened to me and you have the right to judge me!?_

_That was what went through Hans' mind, but he kept silent, looking pitiful, just like what was expected of him. As he predicted, Diaval's expression turned sympathetic as he pulled Hans behind him, facing Mally with a disapproving look._

_"Oh come on, Mally, he's just a kid, and he's having a hard time too."_

_Mally glanced at Hans, then nearly rolled her eyes before answering, "I have no interest in what you think, Diaval."_

_"Alright, alright, I won't say anything, okay?" Diaval said with a sigh, "Just...go upstairs and talk to Elsa. I'll be down here talking to Hans, so let me know when you're done."_

_Mally just frowned, then walked away. Hans couldn't help but muse that despite the woman having a sharp intuition, she was probably still a failure when it came to interpersonal relations. Even as a child Hans knew everyone looked out for themselves, so if you were to turn against someone the moment they displayed an intention to rake in some benefit for themselves, you'd be turning against ninety percent of the people you face, all the while appearing like a high-minded jerk. Everyone should forget about wearing a mask so as to not manipulate others for their own gain? Was she even serious!? Who was she kidding? If everyone were like her, the whole world would be arguing with each other all the time. We live in false agreement with others. We live in a constant tug-of-war for scarce resources, all the while smiling at each other as though we have no conflict of interest. Masks are necessary. You either manipulate others, or you become manipulated._

_"Hey Kid, you're too smart for your own good sometimes," Diaval's words snapped Hans out of his thoughts. When their eyes met, Diaval continued, "Don't think you can fool me. You were pretending to look dejected, right?"_

_"I wasn't!"_

_"Whatever. I was sympathetic not because you fooled me. I was sympathetic because you found the need to fool me," he muttered, then smiled, "When I was a kid, I never thought I'd need to hide my true emotions. My life was a lot simpler than yours, and admittedly, I was so very fortunate."_

_Hans didn't want to listen. Hans didn't need sympathy. Hans didn't want to be reminded that his twelve brothers were living in a mansion somewhere, living an effortless life without needing to think about whether they had the finances of supporting their path to honing their talents. He didn't need to remember he was the unwanted thirteenth son, the illegitimate son, the son his father didn't even know existed because let's face it, Hans was just the result of a random fucking session - given his wealth and fame, Hans' father probably had plenty of those throughout his life._

_Honesty? Fairness? Loyalty? What did those ever bring to his mother on her deathbed as she begged Hans to keep his existence a secret from his birth father? Did that man ever thank her for not blackmailing him for money he should damn well pay to support his own son? Ha!_

_Manipulate, or be manipulated. The lesson he learned from that man who gave him half his genes and not even the slightest glance since he was born. But this was enough. He cherished this lesson, and he didn't need Diaval to look so sorry for his misfortune because it was nothing but fortunate to have picked up such wisdom at this young age._

_"I'm fine. You should go take a look at Phillip instead. I'm worried about him."_

_Diaval knew Hans said that mostly to throw him off, but did catch that sliver of honesty behind his cold, lime-coloured eyes._

_"Yeah, I'll go do that," he said, heading off, not really expecting Hans to say anything more._

_"Wait!"_

_A bit surprised, Diaval paused in his steps, "Yeah, what is it, Hans?"_

_"I think...Phillip might like it if you switch his room assignment...you know, so he gets the empty room with the balcony. I think he really likes watching the skies."_

_So Diaval's guess was right. Hans' worry was not an act. Of course it was genuine, he had been pained his whole life, so how could he not understand?_

_"I'll talk to Dad. He runs the group home after all," Diaval answered, then rubbed Hans' head again, "You're a good kid. I just hope you can find a balance, you know, in being a smart person, and being a good person at the same time. Keep that in mind."_

* * *

A smart person, Hans could readily see what that meant, but a good person? What is good and what is evil? Humans are selfish creatures who see good only in what benefits them, and thus anything that harms their interests must be evil.

Hans did grow up into a smart person. He recognized the hostility displayed by his lab mates. He knew they disapproved of his antagonistic stance towards Elsa. But what did they know? Because the Snow Queen hid behind a door she must then be innocent - what they saw was an image they projected onto Elsa so as to justify their dislike for the way Hans exercised his talents in using them as tools for reaching higher goals.

Maybe nobody would believe him if he voiced his thoughts, but he could understand their hatred for him, and in a way, even accepted it. He hurt their interests, so they hated him, fair enough.

But to project an angelic image on Elsa Snow? Seriously? Were they naive or what?

Elsa Snow was the one who killed Phillip.

Maybe he was just holding a grudge, because everything he did to help Phillip never did save him in the end. That was the last time Hans had tried to do anything for somebody else other than himself, and the results taught him to never do it again.

Hans never got to see Phillip's final moments. Their caretakers kept them away from the balcony room after the night they took Elsa away - the girl's pale blue bed gown was soaked red in blood.

The group home closed soon after. They were placed in the care of separate families and never saw each other again, for Hans and Elsa, not until they joined the Winters Lab.

By then Hans knew Elsa didn't literally kill Phillip with her hands. He had asked Diaval about it. She was just the one who found him after he killed himself...

* * *

_"Why was she even there? She never came out of her room back then!"_

_"Apparently she talked with Phillip. They were flying paper airplanes to each other. I...I don't know if I should really be telling you this..."_

_"I never even got to see him go! He was...at least I thought he was...my friend."_

_Diaval took a breath, then downed the shot of gin to recollect himself. The memory was like the aftertaste of liquor in his mouth, fading, but still so very real and vivid._

_"By the time I got there, they took him out on the ambulance. I just saw the room. It was so empty. I don't think any of us could really take it at that time, so we left the lights off, and the only thing that shone was the moon outside - it streamed in through the curtains that sort of waved in the night breeze. Trust me, it was surreal. At one point I asked myself if it all was just a bad dream. But then I saw those paper airplanes. The moment I noticed them I realized the room wasn't empty after all. It was filled, just totally filled with those glaring pieces of paper, like I couldn't even fit into the room anymore. All this time. All this time none of us could reach Phillip, Elsa was talking to him and that was the evidence. And then there was that single one beside where Phillip must've been when he...left...it was stained this violet-black in the bluish light..."_

_"There was something written on it, right?"_

_"I think Phillip wrote it, but never got the chance to send it out. It was...probably...his last words."_

_"What did it say? Just tell me!"_

_"It said: I can't wait anymore. Sorry."_

* * *

When Kristoff had left for classes and it was calm and quiet again, Hans returned to his desk, and to even his own surprise, he took out the paper airplane he picked up yesterday and opened it to read its contents again. _"...let me say this anyway, even if it's just for myself"_ \- so Elsa Snow did realize her apology was pathetically useless, that it was just her own selfish way of wishing she could be forgiven by someone who would never again be here to forgive her.

Hans knew he had no right to accept or deny Elsa's apology - he was not Phillip after all - but he knew he didn't _want_ to forgive her.

But those honest words on the paper airplane rang in his head. It was mocking him. It was calling him a coward.

He _was_ jealous of Elsa Snow so he tried to take what rightfully belonged to her. He _wanted_ to hate her to justify what he was doing. And not only that: he _wanted_ to hate her so he didn't have to hate himself for failing Phillip.

Maybe Kristoff was right after all. _He was an asshole._

A door clicked open at that moment. Gerda and Kai should be off for a meeting about their new spin-off company, and Anna and Rapunzel just left to grab something from the Corona Lab.

Then it must be her.

Hans couldn't recall the last time he had seen Elsa in the lab, but she was walking down the aisle now. Yes, this was real, she was walking up to him.

"I see that you've finally decided to come out," Hans actually stood up to talk to her when she stopped at his bay. Their eyes met, ice blue against dark lime. Hans admitted, he had never looked into her eyes so clearly.

"I think we should talk."

"If it's about Weselton, then forget it. As much as I hate you, you should already realize that I'm not the one setting up the shit you're dealing with."

"I wanted to talk about Phillip."

Hans didn't like to be surprised, but that was exactly what he was feeling now. Of all the people he couldn't read, it had to be Elsa Snow. While he always chided Kristoff and Anna for trusting her without question, he never understood her either.

Because what he always saw was the negative feelings he projected upon her, and never her true self which he had rejected since they were children.

"Aurora and I will go visit Phillip on the weekend. I wanted to ask if you would come too."

Hans wondered if he should mock her and say "what, you're finally going to see him?" or should he point out "look, we are not friends here. I visit Phillip on my own and I don't need to come with you." But he did realize either answer was just as bitter on his part, so he could only nod reluctantly.

"Fine. Is that all?"

Elsa continued staring at him. There was a bit of anger in her gaze. She couldn't quite unfurrow her brows and didn't think she needed to either. But finally, she tried her best to relax, and spoke out the words that had been in her mind for quite a while.

"Don't get me wrong, I do not appreciate how you manipulated Anna a while back and I will neither forgive you for what you did, nor will I tolerate you trying to do this again. But, about Phillip, I've been meaning to thank you for a long time. Diaval, Aurora, and I...Phillip's friends and family, we did see how you tried to help him. You did a lot of things that I couldn't do and regret not having done at that time, so if there's anyone to blame for what happened, it isn't you. We're thankful for what you did for him. I just wanted to let you know."

_And what good is it telling me this now?_ \- a small part of Hans was thinking this, but he decided, he was just being a jerk.

Elsa Snow was changing. He could no longer use her as a projection for all his frustrations.

"Not as if you didn't try either. Nobody is to blame for that tragedy, even you."

"Yeah, I know."

For all that he thought blaming Elsa would make him feel better, it really didn't compare to the relief of letting go.

He took a breath. It felt refreshing. And with the load off his shoulders, he found himself subconsciously smiling.

"About Weselton, Brad asked me to meet with him again tomorrow at one in the small conference room, so if you're trying to find him, he would be there. Again, it's up to you to deal with your own problems. I'm not the one causing them, at least not this time."

Elsa's expression did not change. It was no shocking revelation. "I know that too, but I'm not going to apologize on Kristoff's behalf for what Anna told me he had been saying to you lately. I think though you're not the one stirring up trouble this time, it's not like you don't want to. You just don't have the power to do it."

"Well, I won't lie that I'm more than a measly grad student after all," Hans smirked.

"For once we're in agreement."

The lab door chose that moment to fly open and Elsa was caught in this horrible dilemma of either staying to see just what exactly happened, or running back to her dark room so she didn't have to deal with whoever was coming.

In the end, she just froze there when Anna appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, hey! You're actually in the lab!" she said.

Elsa's pounding heartbeat finally eased, "What do you mean I'm actually in the lab. I'm _always_ in the lab."

"I mean like...you're actually at Hans' bay."

Elsa turned back to Hans who had this mocking grin on his face. She hardened her gaze. "I don't need to be reminded, Anna."

Sensing the prickling sensation of enmity in the air, Anna giggled, "Err...okay then, let's go back to the dark room. Uhh...bye Hans!"

* * *

When they got back to the safe confines of the dark room, Elsa sat down at the hood, hoping Anna would not decide to ask about what just happened there. But then, that was quite impossible for the curious young girl, she supposed. It didn't exactly strike her as surprising when she said.

"So were you...umm...talking to Hans?"

"Well, yes, but it was about Phillip. I swear I didn't strangle your dreamy-eyed crush."

"Oh come on, Elsa, he was my crush like...ages ago. And it was his perfect sideburns, not his eyes."

"Right...so should I grow some sideburns too?"

That got Anna chuckling, "Well, only if you want to. Your body, your choice. I think you're beautiful either way."

This sent Elsa blushing from her neck all the way to her forehead. She babbled some barely coherent words, "So...why did you slam open the lab door like that? ...like...did you actually get the glycine I told you to ask for?"

"Oh, yeah, that! You should've seen Eugene's face when he saw that underwear! Wait, you don't know what I'm talking about, right? No wait, you told Rapunzel to come with me to the Corona Lab...oh...OH...OH-MY-ELSA! You prepared that underwear package, didn't ya!?"

And then Anna just burst out laughing, so badly that she was literally bent over laughing her guts out. Elsa couldn't help but feel a little concerned.

"Okay, I get it, you think it's very funny. Now you can stop hyperventilating."

"No...but...like...when he opened the package and saw his ugly green with pink hearts boxers sitting oh so unceremoniously on top of the dry ice, you know, with all that mystical-looking mist and all, and then he picked it up and that epic jaw drop when he...when he saw..."

She couldn't continue anymore, kneeling down to the ground hugging her belly, probably because it was too painful to stand anymore, or she was so out of breath that she was starting to feel faint. Elsa sighed, shaking her head.

"That his boxers were frozen solid, right?" Elsa finished for her, "Yes, I know. I don't need to remember that I was the one who dumped his wet boxers into liquid nitrogen for that specific effect. It's still quite fresh in my mind and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing."

That prompted another round of laughter in the younger girl, not that she had really stopped at all to begin with. She just kept on saying "His face...his face!" and couldn't finish her sentence. Elsa could just pat Anna's back in hopes of calming her down.

"I am sure it must've been very amusing, Anna. I'm starting to understand why Weselton asked me to derive the Navier-Stokes equations on the spot during my oral exam. Knowing full well I'm a biologist, I'm sure he was really looking forward to laughing in my face just as Rapunzel and you most likely just did to Eugene. Poor guy."

When Anna finally recovered enough to speak again, she placed a hand on Elsa's shoulder to steady herself, then said, "You talk as though you weren't the one who came up with the idea. Like...how did you even trick the Corona Lab into taking the package to begin with?"

"I just went to receiving, stole their real package, swapped the antibodies with underwear, and put it back there. Now you better get Rapunzel to return the antibodies else their lab manager would go crazy. That stuff is worth a good two thousand dollars."

And the way Elsa said it in such a deadpan made Anna burst out laughing again.

"Holy Shit! I just...I don't know what to say about you, Elsa! You're so..._sweet_!"

Elsa narrowed her icy gaze in a display of skepticism before turning her back to Anna while pretending to work, "Right, swapping my committee member's lab's very expensive package of antibodies for frozen underwear is apparently very _sweet_ of me..."

"Well, if you have to say it that way," Anna grinned, sneaking up to Elsa to hug her from behind. The older girl nearly yelped in surprise, but did manage to keep her composure. Noting the way Elsa stiffened made Anna giggle, the sound of it tickling Elsa's neck, leaving her squirming.

"I thought it was sweet of you to go to such lengths for my amusement," Anna whispered.

Feeling her entire body flush red, especially where Anna's breath was caressing her skin, made Elsa grumble in an almost inaudible tone, "...I think you just love making me embarrassed like this..."

"Well, that too."

"Anna!"

Anna dodged the playful punch, and straightened herself to get back on topic, "Anyway, I'll ask Rapunzel to return the bottle of glycine after she weighs out what we need. And the antibodies too, can't forget that. You think you'll be ready by then?"

Ready for the promised date. Yes, now that Elsa thought about it, she couldn't help but blush even more.

She was gonna go shopping with Anna, then grab some dinner with her, then Anna said she should visit her place and...and then...then...What the hell was she thinking!?

"Umm...ye...yes...I'll be ready," she answered, but no, she really didn't think she would ever be ready.

**End of Chapter 17**

* * *

_And thus finally concludes the story of Eugene's boxers?_


	18. Chapter 18

AN: Thanks C A Moore, Veoviing, Gcohen, Yuiiub, t3l4m0n, sedryn and wannasalad for their kind comments since the last update. Regarding Hans' focus in the last chapter, that's pretty much the last of him for this fic. He doesn't play a strong role from here on in the story. About simplifying some of the experiments I've talked about in this fic when I do the final edits, I might try to do that, but I have a feeling it might still be too in-depth for a general audience. If I simplify the language down too much, it might lose the atmosphere of the story. So what I'm planning on doing is updating that explanations page on my tumblr with pictures and descriptions to show you what I'm talking about in the fic. I think that way, the atmosphere can be preserved, and readers can also learn a little bit more about the kind of work and techniques we use in this field. But if you have something specific you find especially confusing, I can see if I can do something about it. Unfortunately, I find that I can't really distinguish between what would be more confusing for a general public audience, what would be more acceptable, so your comments would really help me figure out where the problems are and fix them. Also, I do have a _Mai Hime_ "version" lab story called _Fujino Lab_, which hasn't been updated in a while, but that will change once this story finishes to give me more time to update that _Mai Hime_ one. While this story is largely real-life science, that story is more sci-fi and has a murder mystery kind of focus.

Back to this particular update, I struggled a bit with whether I should write this arc, which includes some discussions on religion, homosexuality, and science. I've planned it really early on in the story, but I've contemplated leaving it out because I don't want to seem like I'm passing on a political message. The reason why I planned it out from the start was because I intended this fic to be...a _Frozen_ version of a microbial genetics lab? I'm not sure if all genetics labs are like this, but in the three I've worked in, there are pretty vocal discussions about this matter because the evolutionary theory is very important to their research, and obviously, this theory is one of the ones often seen at odds with certain religious views. Now that I think of it, I do somewhat regret planning out this arc based on such a simple reason because I have to sort of put certain views in the mouths of the characters, which I don't think I should do in a fanfic. Nonetheless, I think I've put in far too much foreshadowing to just scrap the arc altogether, so I suppose I'll shorten it a bit and put more emphasis on other aspects that I feel are more important functions of this specific storyline. With that said, let's just get into it. I don't think this rant is important at all, but just let it be said that I don't mean to pass on some deeper message when I'm writing this, and I think you should be the judge for whatever views may be expressed in this story.

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 18

"So what are we having tonight?" Elsa asked.

"You'll see."

Anna was glad Elsa didn't ask any further. She seemed preoccupied at any rate, probably asking just for the sake of saying something. As they walked down the aisles of the campus supermarket, Elsa's eyes darted here and there and everywhere but Anna, her face tinted with a shade of red.

Before, Elsa was nervous about arranging a date with Anna, but who would think that even after reluctantly handing off the lead, she would still be feeling so uneasy about this?

"Oh look, chocolates!" Anna's voice brought her back to reality, and she was promptly yanked off by her hand towards the stand where a staff member was holding a food demonstration.

Right, this was exactly what she was giddy about - the unpredictability of Anna's next move. She had no idea what kind of surprises would Anna be throwing her way!

"Here, have one," Anna continued, taking a sample of chocolate to hand to Elsa. She watched eagerly as Elsa took a bite, "How is it?"

"It's good," Elsa answered with a smile, but Anna didn't seem adequately satisfied. She turned back to the staff member once again.

"What about the other types? Can we have a white and a dark chocolate sample too? Oh, and the one with the hazelnut, we want to try that too. It's different from the ones we had, right?"

The woman didn't look impressed, but did give them one of each as requested. Anna took the offer and didn't ask for more, handing them all to Elsa.

"Here, try them."

"What about you?" Elsa asked.

"I'm good. Had too much to eat for lunch...and I was like busy until late afternoon so I ate at three...I'm still hella full, ahahahaha!"

"Okay..."

Elsa savoured the taste of chocolate in her mouth while Anna looked on with watery puppy eyes. She wondered if she should point out to Anna that she was practically drooling, but decided against it.

"Didn't you say you wanted to use the washroom? How about you go now and I'll go pick up the hair dye you wanted and meet you outside," Elsa said.

Seeing as the staff member from the food demonstration was still glaring daggers at them, Anna whispered loudly in Elsa's ear, "...I think it's better if you come with me."

But Elsa just shook her head.

"I'll be okay," she muttered.

With no other choice, Anna headed off to the washroom and afterwards met up with Elsa outside. Elsa was carrying a small grocery bag, and still held a gentle smile on her face.

"Err...sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have done that..." Anna said sheepishly. Elsa chuckled.

"Cheaping out on chocolates for me, you mean?"

"Don't say it!" Anna whined, covering her face, "It's not like I want to be saving up to pay next month's rent...if I had more money I wouldn't have to worry that you wouldn't like my cheap dinner food...and wouldn't have to try and fill up your stomach beforehand..."

This made Elsa laugh even more.

"Don't worry about it, Silly. Here."

Anna finally peeked out the gaps in her fingers, and then lowered her hands entirely when she saw what Elsa held in front of her.

The box of chocolates that was on promotion!

"But...I was supposed to..."

"There isn't anything you're supposed to do, Anna. Just be yourself," Elsa answered before she could finish. Anna pouted, her brows furrowed.

"Still, you didn't have to..."

"I didn't. But I wanted to," Elsa said, taking Anna's hand in hers, "And if you're worried about my wallet, it's okay. At least Brad pays my tuition while you still have to pay your own."

"I...I promise I'll buy you a chocolate ice cream cake when I win the lottery!" Anna exclaimed. Elsa just couldn't stop laughing at the determined grin on her face, which only led Anna to add, "I'm serious!"

"Well, you better buy me more than an ice cream cake if you win the jackpot. You have to at least treat me to a five-course dinner!"

"Speaking of dinner..."

Anna took Elsa's hand once more and dragged her in the direction of the train station, "I may not have much to feed our Snow Queen with, but I'll try not to make you hangry!"

* * *

Anna's home was quite far from campus. It took a half-hour train ride, then a forty-five minute bus transfer before they reached the basement suite she rented on the outskirts of town. The suite itself was modestly-sized, with one bed, one bath, and an open kitchen connected to the small living room. Anna urged Elsa to a corner of the living room where an old piano stood. Apparently, the piano was the landlord's, but he didn't have space upstairs to put it so left it in the basement - Anna had taken over and put many pictures and decorations on top of it.

"Just don't look this way, okay? Don't look!" Anna said.

"Then what am I going to do?" Elsa complained.

"Look at the pictures. Oh, there are more in the photo album beside the TV. Do that. Or whatever...just don't look over here!"

"Okay, okay, I won't look."

Elsa first took a look at the photos on the piano. There weren't many, just a couple of young Anna playing by herself, and what looked to be a family picture taken on a golden wheat field. She then skimmed through the album where the same man and woman as in the family picture made regular appearances. The woman had dark hair often held in a bun behind her, large kind eyes shining with her smiles, while the man had strawberry blonde hair like Anna's, his long, tall nose and thick moustache his most prominent features.

"The man and woman from the picture you have up on the piano are your parents, right?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah. They all say I look more like my dad. Damn, that's boring."

"Boring?"

"Yeah, you can't be a pastor without looking boring."

Elsa chuckled, "You sure made a bold statement about all pastors."

"Well, I take that back. My dad is boring and he is a pastor. So there."

Elsa glanced at the etched glass cross on the piano when Anna turned around, her unsure voice sounding across the room, "You think it's...weird for a religious person to be in the sciences? You know, especially in genetics?"

"You mean from a philosophical perspective or just my personal opinion?"

"Well...either..."

"Forgive me if I'm being ignorant, but religions are based on their believers' faith, right? You're not supposed to question what is holy. This may not be true in practice, but it is probably true in principle. Science, however, is based upon questions. Regardless of how good a hypothesis, or even a theory, is, in principle, you are supposed to continue questioning it in order to learn more about the physical world. Then again, this may not be how it is practised in reality. So just speaking philosophically for a moment, there does seem to be a contradiction. But since neither are truly practised to the way their foundations are laid, I don't see a real clash here. More specifically speaking, I don't find your religious affiliation to have any impact whatsoever on your performance in the lab, if that's what you are asking."

"I see..."

Elsa smiled, "Well, are you going to tell me why you just asked that question? Because we brought up the topic of your dad?"

"I guess. He's more of a fundamentalist while I'm more...liberal? He'd say I'm cherry-picking the Bible, but I'd like to think I'm just connecting with it in a more spiritual sense than literal. But lately, we've gotten into a couple arguments over this...well...across the phone anyway. My parents are still back in the countryside."

"I can't say I understand, seeing as I'm atheist, but if you want someone to just listen, know that I'm right here."

"Yeah. That makes me feel quite a bit better actually," Anna said, then hearing some noises behind her, she turned swiftly around, cursing the pot. Elsa couldn't help but look in her direction.

"You okay over there?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I said don't look!"

"Alright, I trust you..." _\- actually, not really._

To take her mind off what was likely turning into a kitchen disaster, Elsa turned towards the windows mounted high on the basement wall. The skies had since turned dark after they had arrived at Anna's place, the winter wind outside beginning to howl with the sounds of pattering rain on the cement path cutting across the backyard.

"Sounds like a storm out there," Elsa noted.

Anna chuckled, "Guess that means you'll have to stay the night!"

Upon hearing this, Elsa turned a shade of red darker, "Err...I'll take the sofa then..." to which Anna replied with a mischievous "It's not really necessary, because you know, I don't mind sharing." She had to wonder if Anna had intentionally set up their dinner date based on the weather forecast.

Just as she was contemplating what other possible tricks remained in Anna's sleeves, the phone interrupted her thoughts. She was going to pick it up, only to have Anna shout across the room.

"I'll get it!"

"You sure? Don't you have your hands full?"

The phone continued ringing while Anna shot worried glances at the pot and back at the phone. Elsa could imagine what was going through Anna's brain - she was clearly saying "I am so screwed" to herself.

"Ah...can you just help me out here for a sec, Elsa? I'll go get the phone."

"Okay."

Elsa came over to the kitchen where things were a little messy, but nothing had exploded. Then again, Anna did live by herself, so it made sense that she usually cooked for herself, right? The pot was closed with a lid, so Elsa couldn't see what was inside.

"Don't touch it unless it's an emergency, okay?" Anna said.

"Alright. It's a surprise right?"

"Yeah. Just...don't let it boil over. If it does, then..."

"I know how to cook, Anna. Not really well, but I know how to keep losses to a minimum."

"That totally doesn't sound convincing, but..." the phone rang again, prompting Anna to hurry over to the living room.

"Not like the rattling of your pot a moment earlier convinced me of your culinary skills either, Anna," Elsa shouted her way. She smiled before picking up her cordless phone and walking into her bedroom to take the call.

Though Anna asked Elsa to watch the pot, Elsa found herself casting her eyes on the closed door of Anna's room. She couldn't stop herself from wondering what was it about that call that made Anna have to answer it so suspiciously. She recalled that Anna told her she usually talked with her parents over the phone after she got home from campus each day, so that was probably it, but why did she have to answer it in private?

Elsa became increasingly worried as the conversation dragged on. She could catch bits and pieces of it as Anna's voice got louder. What was going on? Anna had just told her she had had arguments with her father over the past while...was that happening again? A sick feeling set in at the bottom of Elsa's gut. What if Anna wasn't really asking about the contradictions between religion and science, but rather, her faith and her relationship with Elsa?

They had only started dating for a matter of weeks, so it wasn't as though Elsa expected Anna to tell all her family and friends about their relationship, but if they really reached that point some time in the future, as Elsa really hoped, would it be a problem?

Spending time with Anna had been so...euphoric...for her that she had not really considered anything aside from how to please Anna, but as the older one in this relationship, should she start considering it now? But even if she were concerned about Anna's family situation, what could she do about it? How could she even bring it up when Anna clearly didn't want her in on what was happening?

Her thoughts were cut short by a bright flash outside, followed by the roar of thunder. With a loud snap, the room went pitch dark. Elsa dropped everything she was doing and stumbled towards Anna's room, luckily managing to navigate in the dark without tripping on herself. At the same time, Anna opened the door.

"The wind probably got a power line. The electricity is out," Elsa said.

"Yeah. Maybe it's a good thing," Anna muttered a tired reply, putting her cordless phone back on the base unit.

Elsa pondered whether to ask about what had just transpired, but decided against it instead. Anna would tell her when she was ready. For now, she'd just stand behind her back and support her whenever she needed it.

"Well, even though the power is out, maybe I'll just hand the kitchen back to you anyway. I don't know if whatever you're cooking is already good to go."

A grin returned to Anna's face, "Then let's take a look!"

She went into the kitchen, took a look at the stove, and then stared at Elsa, "Err...why did you turn off the stove?"

"It's a power outage, so it makes sense that there's no power for the electric stove, right?"

"No, I mean...like...the power knob. It's off."

"I didn't touch it, Anna."

Anna closed her eyes, cursed under her breath, then slammed her forehead into her palm with a loud smack.

"Damn it, I must'ved turned it off subconsciouly when I went to grab the phone!"

"And I didn't notice..." Elsa added guiltily.

"I did ask you to make sure it doesn't boil over, and it didn't, so you did your job just fine," Anna teased, making both of the laugh.

"So...it's not edible..."

"Technically it is. I mean, it's instant noodles."

Elsa quirked an eyebrow, "Really? All that suspense over instant noodles?"

"I swear this is a special type! It's my favourite pizza noodles."

Now Elsa was really confused, "So is it pizza or noodles?"

"Just take a look at this!" Anna said, opening the lid. A pot of noodles in a thick, red soup sat there, looking somewhat unappetizing. Despite this, Anna tapped her own shoulder proudly, "It's my invention. Tomato stock for soup, sliced pepperoni laid on top, and this..."

She placed a sheet of white onto the noodles and it soon melted under the heat, "Cheese. It's damn perfect."

As much as this was a creative use of food, Elsa wasn't so sure she really wanted to try the creation.

"You look skeptical," Anna noted.

"I...ahh...just don't know what to say about something so novel."

"Oh come on," she smacked Elsa's back lightly, "You're a scientist. You have to do experiments before you come to conclusions."

"Umm...can we go by the lab rules of not ingesting chemicals?"

"Elsa!" Anna whined, punching her lightly on the arm, "Oh fine, fine, fine...you can have my sandwiches instead."

With that said, Elsa helped set up the table while Anna brought the food over then lighted the candles to give them some light.

"Candles are sorta romantic aren't they? What do you think, Elsa?"

Elsa thanked the darkness for concealing her blush. She coughed to clear her throat, making sure she didn't sound a little too giddy about all this, "Well...probably better than flashlights. I mean, your fragrant lavender candles cover the strange smell of cheesy noodles."

"You're really on the roll with the teases today, huh?"

Elsa smirked, "And I wisely chose to sit across from you on this long table so you can't hit me again."

While Anna glared playfully at her, she took a bite into the sandwich on her plate. It tasted...familiar...yet something was off about it. It tasted...aged? It took her a moment to figure it out, then she shot a horrified look at Anna.

"Don't tell me this sandwich is from that seminar two days ago."

Anna nearly spat out a mouthful of noodles while she struggled to cover her laugh, "Serves you right for laughing at my cooking, ahahahahaha..."

"You're such an..._asshole_!" Elsa yelled indignantly, taking off the top piece of bread to reveal what was inside the sandwich, "The avocado has since turned black!"

"Well, do you want some noodles instead, then?"

Elsa narrowed her gaze towards Anna, "Your endless winking doesn't make your offer any more enticing..."

"Then how about this?"

Anna took her bowl of noodles with her as she went over to sit on Elsa's lap. She picked up a string of noodle and held one end in her lips, letting the other end dangle down limply.

"Wha...what is the meaning of this?" Elsa stuttered, swallowing down the nervousness at her throat. She could feel her body heat up with Anna's proximity, and she couldn't help cast her gaze on how a drop of soup trickled onto Anna's bare skin atop her collarbone and was now snaking its way into her loose t-shirt.

Anna grinned mischievously, pointing at the other end of the noodle with her finger. She knew full well Elsa understood her intentions.

"So...this is like...a pocky game?" Elsa asked, recalling the animations Anna had watched with her once. Anna nodded, her eyes literally twinkling with amusement.

"Fine..." Elsa muttered, trying her best to tear her gaze off Anna while she picked up the other end of the noodle and put it in her mouth. As she did so, Anna started eating away her end, moving closer and closer, until it was impossible for Elsa to turn away without breaking the noodle between them.

Elsa didn't want to be the passive one anymore.

With regards to Anna's family situation, with regards to their relationship, she wanted to show Anna how she felt too.

She took the last bite, closing in their distance, sealing their kiss. The noodle was stiff from being undercooked, but Elsa didn't care, just pulling Anna close to her, stroking her back, clawing through her hair to rub her scalp with her fingers. Her tongue reached into Anna, tasting the sourness of tomato, but at the same time relishing in its sweetness, all rounded with the slight saltiness of melting cheese. All her worries, all her fears propelled her to deepen their contact, as though she wanted to tell Anna that she didn't want to let her go. And seeming to sense this possessiveness, Anna leaned in to maximize contact, her hands wandering down Elsa's shapely form to draw a light moan from her kisser. Only when the air in their lungs had been sucked dry by passion did they let go to catch a breath, with Elsa wearing a satisfied smile.

"_That_ was much more appetizing."

* * *

They went the entire night without power, but that was fine by them.

It should be cold without central heating, but that was the least of their concerns that night.

It was morning when they got their power back. Elsa was too groggy to notice at first, which was rare, seeing as she usually woke up before the first light of dawn. She sat up from the bed, blinking twice before noticing Anna sitting at her desk, her hair held in a towel. She probably just came out from a shower, and she was now talking on the phone.

"Alright, I gotta go, Ma. Pass on my congratulations for Uncle Nik. I hope Pa will reconcile with him soon."

Anna blew a kiss into the handset, pressed the end call button, and set it onto the table. Elsa was suddenly reminded of Anna's call with her parents just before the power outage last night, and she couldn't help but feel a bit anxious about all this.

"You had a good night's sleep?" Anna asked. Elsa nodded.

"Yeah." It was a good night, a wonderful night even, but...she was now so worried that all good things would end when you were enjoying it most.

Then again, she had made up her mind that she wouldn't give up so easily.

And Anna didn't disappoint. A strong will from her chased away the last of Elsa's fleeting negative thoughts. Elsa could feel Anna's determination as she spoke next.

"You probably heard my call last night, and the call just now, right? Last night was my dad, this morning my mom."

Elsa nodded. Anna didn't seem like she needed a response, because she intended to continue speaking...

Speaking about the decisions she had come to make.

"My Uncle Nik is getting married with a man. My father is opposed to it. That's why I argued with him. Yesterday, I told him that I'm going to support my uncle no matter what."

Anna took off the towel from her head, revealing her wet hair, with a strand of platinum dyed on one side.

"You really...dyed a strand of hair my colour?"

"Because I love you. I want everyone to know that."

Anna came over to Elsa and pulled her into an embrace, whispering in her ear, "Don't worry, Elsa. Unless you push me away, I won't let you go. I won't let anyone or anything come between us. When it comes time, I'll explain to my parents. I'll tell them this is who I am and you are who I love. There is nothing more important than being truthful, to them, to you, and to myself."

Elsa returned the hug, delivering a reassuring squeeze around Anna, "Thank you. And I'll support you no matter what happens. Always."

**End of Chapter 18**

_\- as always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions. The next update is scheduled for Dec 11th._


	19. Chapter 19

AN: Thanks Ae123monkey, christian_nickles_3 (sorry, FFN keeps eating up my dots, so I used underscores instead), MilandaAnza, ThatGuest01, misconstrued0892, sedryn, frankenjones, OnkelHarreh, Gcohen, C A Moore, and t3l4m0n for their kind reviews in the last chapter. About whether Elsa has explicitly stated that she loves Anna, I'll be honest and say I actually forgot whether or not Elsa has said anything about it in this story (I apologize. After my little hiatus studying for comps, I just skimmed over the earlier chapters and didn't pay enough attention to the details). I think my thought process when I wrote the earlier chapters was probably that Anna is a more expressive character while Elsa is more subtle about the way she feels? Either way, they'll both have more chances down the road to express their love for each other in more obvious ways. As for the 250k microscope, it's that expensive mainly because of the high resolution camera. The objectives are typically pretty expensive as well. It has a turret to alternate between different filter cubes because it's an epifluorescence microscope, so it needs to shoot light at the sample at a specific wavelength (so a specific color, if you will), and detect the emitted light from the sample at a specific wavelength as well. Wikipedia actually has a really good diagram of how the filter cubes work, if you're interested. Of course, the 250k cost also includes service and maintenance contracts, warranties, shipping and handling, accessories as the computers that come with these microscopes, the program for controlling the microscope, the moveable stage and incubators, etc. But even without the accessories, the most basic type of epifluorescence microscopes is typically a lot more expensive than the type of light microscopes you find in undergrad lab courses (where you can only look at things under brightfield with a 10x or 20x objective). There are even more expensive microscopes though, such as confocal microscopes and electron microscopes. For a comparison, an upgrade on the detector system of a confocal alone can cost 100k, and each laser around 40k. I swear if I burn one of those lasers out, my PI would probably want to burn me.

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 19

Why did they have to have a colloquium on the top of a mountain, Anna had no idea.

As much as she would've liked to commute back to campus with Elsa, encourage her before heading down to classes, coming back to share lunch with Elsa, then encourage her again before she headed off to the meeting room battlefield against Hans and Weselton, Anna signed up for this goddamn local colloquium back when she submitted that abstract for the International Creative Genomics Conference. She really wanted to skip it, but Elsa told her to go, said that it'd look good on her resume. Now she regretted listening to her.

She was carpooling with Eugene, Rapunzel on the front passenger seat, Merida sharing the back with Anna. It was pouring outside, and only got worse as they ascended the mountain. The narrow, unpaved two-lane road twisted and turned on the steep incline, and Anna swore at the last turn, Eugene brought the car right into the opposite lane and almost off the damn cliff into the ocean a good hundred feet below them.

Before, Rapunzel affectionately overlapped her hand with Eugene's that was on the gear lever. Now, she held onto the side handle with both hands, most probably for her dear life!

Anna thought that she would puke at any moment. Only Merida seemed to be enjoying the ride with Eugene, humming a tune before adding, "Aye, reminds meh of good ole days rid'in my lil pony, Angus." It would be much later that all of them found out Angus was a giant Clydesdale and he ran...real fast.

They finally managed to get there. It must've taken a miracle for them to arrive all in one piece. They were already late though, seeing as they drove around the mountain three times before they found the parking lot.

"How do you even use this thing?" Eugene growled at the digital parking meter. Rapunzel quirked an eyebrow.

"And you said you got a PhD. Really?"

"I don't have a PhD in Parking Meters! Shouldn't it be assumed that I know nothing outside of growing yeast?"

"Ah yeah...argue on...we've got all dey dunt we, and dat gondola yis gonna wait fur us all dey too..."

And sure enough the gondola took off without them, stranding them at the parking lot for fifteen more minutes before they could ride it up the mountain peak.

"Ah...it's snowing," Anna remarked once they exited the gondola.

"Well, it's a ski resort," Eugene answered.

"And they're having a colloquium at a ski resort. Without the skiing..." Rapunzel deadpanned.

"Aye jus read wut dat gondola pass says und found dat it costs fifty jus ta git up here."

"Fifty dollars for a gondola ride without the skiing? I'd rather they spend it on grilled lobster tails!" Anna couldn't believe what Merida just said, but smart as Rapunzel was, she turned towards the head of wavy red and glared.

"Who are you kidding, Merida...this is so obviously Fergus Dunbroch's idea."

Oh, and once they entered the resort building, Dunbroch's booming voice sounded from inside the boardroom. "Oh jus shut yur butts, ya ungrateful peeps, da fireplace tis totally wurth our departmental budget!"

Seems like Anna and her friends weren't the only ones complaining.

They opened the door and walked into the boardroom. Well, they first walked into people crowded at the entrance of the boardroom. The first talk was starting and they could hardly find a place to stand, let alone sit.

"I'm quite sure the sign at the door said that the occupancy of this room is 50. And I'm quite sure our department alone has more than 50 people." Rapunzel said.

"Maybe he expected the guests and speakers to arrive on horse and speak from outside the windows," Eugene answered.

"Right. In the snow. All the while he's hugging the fireplace."

"I'm just concerned about where to put up my poster when it comes time for the poster session," Anna entered the conversation.

"Along the ski track. Then we can look at it on the way downhill. I'm sure the effect is similar to the usual poster sessions anyway." Eugene was on the roll with his sarcastic replies, it seems.

"At least da muffins are gud!"

"You don't have to try so hard to find something positive to say about Fergus' idiotic spending decisions. I mean, we get it, we're stuck behind a concrete post while the keynote is speaking," Eugene said.

"All the while, he invited the accountant. I swear she's falling asleep," Rapunzel added.

"What do you mean she's falling asleep? You see that pool of drool on the table cloth? I think she's been asleep since they loaded up that presentation!"

Amidst the obligatory technical difficulties and the speaker who thinks he's more important than everybody else and inevitably runs overtime by an hour, they finally got their lunches at two.

"And this is supposed to end at five? At this rate, we're staying till seven!" Rapunzel complained between a mouthful of muffin. Yes, breakfast and lunch both consisted solely of muffins, because that was all they could afford after paying for the gondola rides.

"Don't worry, the gondolas only run till five. The resort staff would force us out anyway. All this means is Elinor will cut down the poster session to fifteen minutes, and she'll make the speakers shut up half an hour into their talks with the big gong over there," Eugene explained.

If only Anna knew the colloquium would turn out like this, she wouldn't have come. Was it too late to rent a pair of skis, go down a couple runs to kill time, then head home?

She sighed. She wondered if Elsa was doing alright.

* * *

Elsa felt cold sweat on her palms. She was more nervous than when she had her comps, but she willed herself to stay strong. She had contemplated just letting this one go, just signing that patent application like she knew Weselton wanted her to in order to get that manuscript problem out of the way, but after Anna's encouragement, she decided not to.

If Anna could stand up to her own father to fight for what she thought was right, it only made sense that Elsa did the same. Otherwise, how could she become the strength that Anna would need to rely upon?

Maybe this was the solution she had been looking for all this time she had forced herself to stay at the Winters Lab. She had an impressive publication record, her thesis was pretty much complete if she just compiled all her papers together - she was still here because she was afraid to get out into the real world where she would have to deal with people like Hans and Weselton and probably much worse. But if she were a violet, she couldn't stay in this greenhouse forever. She belonged to the sun, the wind, the wild. She needed them to grow.

To be the scientist she really wanted to become, she would need to learn how to play this game, and when she was strong enough, make her own rules to advance this field in the direction she believed in.

She nodded to herself, grabbed the door handle of the conference room, and pushed it open. Weselton looked surprised, stopping mid-sentence, while Hans just turned around with a smirk.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Elsa asked, but clearly, she cared not for an answer. She pulled out a seat from the table and sat down, "Oh, is that not the manuscript I emailed you, Prof. Weselton? That's what I came to talk about."

Weselton smiled, but Elsa could clearly feel a tinge of nervousness and ample anger radiating off him, "I've just been telling Hans about the device design we've developed for your work. You don't mind me showing him the part of the methods section that describes this process, do you?"

"Of course not. It's developed at your lab after all. I just gave some suggestions each time it failed to work over the past year of our collaboration."

Now the nervousness from Weselton became completely overshadowed by the anger. He was becoming red with frustration. On the other hand, despite Hans' calm visage, Elsa knew he was quite amused by the situation.

And Elsa? For once, she could truly speak her mind, and it was the best feeling ever.

"I don't mean to say that Hans is not welcome to use the design if that's what you think is appropriate, Prof. Weselton. I know you're eager to file the patent application on this device, so Hans could probably help you show that the invention is useful, and therefore patentable, by applying it to his work."

"So you mean to say you no longer plan on using this device for your work?" Hans asked.

"Over the past weeks while I've been trying to contact Prof. Weselton, I came to understand that perhaps my work is premature for publication. I haven't performed as many experiments as I had hoped to verify my hypothesis due to limits imposed by the device, so I sought the opinion of Prof. Mally Moors. It has been very insightful."

"You do realize that if you choose to work with Mally instead, your work will no longer be patentable as my lab's design patent would be granted by then, and its claims would cover what you are working on," Weselton said. It was a threat. Even without feeling the negative feelings emitting from him, Elsa understood just from his choice of words. She smiled though.

"Oh, I should've considered that. After all, I recall the patent strategy we were to take was a scorched-earth approach, correct? Of course there will be a claim on my work even if such data does not exist. But didn't Prof. Weselton always find the need to remind me to sign the patent application? I think while working with Mally, I'd probably forget about it too. I mean, as a grad student, my job is technically just writing up my thesis, no?"

That was the reason Elsa refused to sign the patent application, and Weselton knew it. The scorched-earth claims would bar many scientists from entering the research that would progress the field further, but at the same time, it would do nothing to prevent big corporations with much cash to pay their vast legal teams to find a workaround the patent should it prove to be really useful. Of course, Weselton probably just wanted to broaden the claims to make it more attractive for a potential commercial buyer, who would have their own legal teams to defend their intellectual property.

It all came down to money, and despite Elsa being not naive enough to think that money was unimportant, she still didn't agree with, nor wanted to take part in realizing Weselton's belief that money should be everything. Could they not do both at once - make money and make contributions to their field and society as a whole? Maybe her view was too idealistic, but Elsa didn't want to give up without trying.

"Have you talked to Brad about this yet?" Weselton asked. Elsa stared into his eyes with her cold blues.

"I've informed him of my new collaboration with Mally. I don't think it affects him either way, as he has already agreed for Hans to take over on this collaboration with your lab. It should not be too inconvenient for you either, would it, Prof. Weselton? I mean, you've already started communicating with Hans instead of me over the past weeks. This would seem to me that he's doing a better job than I have in the past, and I apologize for that. It's unfortunate that things didn't work out as well as we had initially expected."

Hans mused that Weselton surely didn't feel any sincerity in Elsa's apology, not that she had actually meant it either. But this Elsa, one who outright refused to back down, was certainly new to him, and as much as he hated to admit it, she was winning quite some respect from him.

Truth be told, as angry as Weselton was that a little brat like Elsa dared talk him down, he couldn't find an excuse to turn away her offer. He wanted the patent filed and Elsa was willing to back out of it. That was what he wanted most anyway. It would've been better if he could take all her data along too, but if he insisted on it, would Brad back him up? Brad Winters was the department head and that meant he knew what he was doing when playing the political game. Using Elsa to foster a collaboration with the brilliant but ever elusive Mally Moors might be the outcome he wanted from the very beginning. He might be less than pleased if Weselton interfered with his perfect plan.

"If you've really decided to end our collaboration, I wouldn't insist further," Weselton answered, then looked at Elsa who remained seated, "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

"I'm thankful for all the useful advice you've given me in past committee meetings, but with this, it seems that there will be some major changes to my thesis proposal," she said, handing Weselton a form to sign. "As much as I would've liked to keep you on my committee, I understand that I would be taking up a lot of your precious time discussing matters that you may not be most interested in. I've asked Mally to help supervise my thesis progress instead, so if you agree, just sign at the very bottom of the document."

So Elsa wasn't so dumb as to think Weselton wouldn't take retaliatory actions against her for what happened today, huh? Hans smirked. She was smarter than he thought.

But would Weselton agree?

When he took a look at the document, he noticed that despite Brad not having signed yet, Mally's signature was already on it. So regardless of what Brad thought, the girl would go through with her plan anyway, reason being she already had Mally behind her?

Weselton couldn't understand what Mally saw in the girl, then again, Mally was always an odd ball, which was why they stuck her in the basement despite her highly influential status in their common field of work.

He scoffed. The girl was a rather daring lil' un'. He could almost see her future as Mally's successor.

"I'll sign it. Ya happy now?" He scribbled his signature on the page and passed it back to Elsa. She took it, stood up, and nodded.

"Thank you, that will do. I'll interrupt no further."

* * *

Elsa was about to fire a text to Anna with the good news that her Weselton Problem was finally over, but when she unlocked her cell and checked her messages, she could see a string of complaints from a rather displeased Anna.

_\- finally got on Eugenes car. parked two blocks away in this damn rain! posters soaked :(  
_  
_\- shouldnt have complained about walking. id be more scared if he drove the extra 2 blocks  
_  
_\- WERE STILL GOING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN CAUSE HE CANT FIND THE PARKING LOT omg imma puke  
_  
_\- gondola tickets 50 bucks. thats why its muffins all day  
_  
_\- highlight of the day: presenters laptop got a porn popup LMAO  
_  
_\- u doin ok Els?  
_  
_\- i miss ya_

Elsa quickly tapped on the keys of her phone to send a reply:

\- It went great. Thanks for all your encouragement, Anna!

Elsa looked out the window at the mountain in the distance, blurry from the water that ran down the glass pane. She touched her hand to the cold glass and lined it with where she thought Anna would be far away, a longing feeling rushing up her insides.

\- I miss you too. I want to see you now.

After sending that last message, Elsa ran out the building. She hadn't brought her umbrella, so she got a bit soaked, but she hastily grabbed a towel from her dorm room as she was fishing out her car keys, took the umbrella this time, and hurried down to the underground carpark to get her car.

She was going to drive over to where the colloquium was, but thought about the texts Anna sent. It led her to take a little detour to the Chinese place just off campus and bought a dozen of Anna's favourite steamed pork buns before driving off again. She was probably going to be a little early, considering colloquia usually ended a bit late, but she allotted enough time to beat the afternoon traffic rush.

She arrived an hour after she set out. Maybe she shouldn't have bought the steamed buns. She was worried they wouldn't be fresh anymore when Anna came down. But since Elsa kept the package on her lap, the buns might still be warm, right? But...would it be bad to keep the food at a warm temperature for so long? Would Anna get food poisoning from this? Gosh...so many worries swimmed through her head.

Then people finally started coming down the gondola to the parking lot, amongst them Anna. Elsa got off her car and waved at her.

"Oh Elsa! What are you doing here?"

"You said Eugene's driving was horrible, so I'm offering to be your chauffeur instead, if you trust my driving, that is."

"My driving isn't that bad," Eugene complained. Rapunzel glared at him.

"I swear, I would beg Elsa to drive me too if not for how I would totally be interrupting their lovey dovey couples time."

Both Elsa and Anna blushed at the comment.

"Ya shudn't even 'ave brought dat up, Punzie Grl," Merida dragged Rapunzel off into the direction of Eugene's car, "We can jus hound on our Anna dear after tis over ta git all tha juicy details, no?"

"That's totally not the point, Merida!" Anna shouted after her friends' backs before turning towards Elsa again, "Sorry about that."

"No, it's okay. Are you going to hop on?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Anna got on the car and noticed that Elsa's seat is a bit wet. Only then did she notice Elsa was also soaked with the exception of her lap, which unbeknownst to Anna was dry because Elsa had drapped the towel over it. She couldn't let the steamed buns get wet after all.

"You're soaked," Anna noted.

"I forgot my umbrella at the dorms and when I went back to get my keys, the rain poured on me."

"You went back to the dorms? Then why didn't you get a change of clothes?"

Elsa looked down, her face flushing more red, "Well...I wanted to come here sooner, so..."

"You're such an idiot!"

Anna took the towel from Elsa's hand and scrubbed Elsa's hair with it, "You've got to rub it a little harder to get all the water out. Gosh, and wipe the seat! You're sitting in a pool of water - it's like you peed in your seat or something!"

"I did not!"

"You wouldn't want people to mistaken that. Sheesh, isn't your butt uncomfortable from being so wet?"

"You're starting to sound like a nagging mom, Anna."

After Elsa was finally as dry as she could be without a new change of clothes and a blow dryer, Anna finally freed her up and let her start the car.

Anna placed her hand on the gear selector so that after Elsa released the parking brake and was about to shift from parking to reverse, their hands touched.

"Whoa! What are you doing, Anna?"

"I want you to hold my hand!"

Elsa quirked an eyebrow, "You do know I'm not Eugene and I drive with automatic transmission, right?"

"Even if it's just for a couple seconds, I want you to hold my hand," Anna said with a smile.

"Fine, then let me hold the knob and then you can put your hand on top of mine. I can't move it the way I want to when you're holding it, and that's dangerous!"

"Of course, of course!"

With Anna being her little parking aid, helping double-check the results of her shoulder check to ensure they were backing up safely, they got out of the parking spot and started going down the mountain. While Anna was turning around, she sniffed and sniffed until she located what was now tossed on the backseat.

"Are those steamed pork buns?" she asked.

"Oh, don't eat them, Anna. I bought them just before coming here and I'm a little worried they're not fresh anymore. I'll buy you some more on the way back, okay?"

But that went totally out of Anna's ear. She just delightfully grabbed the package and took out a big fat white bun from inside and held it to her mouth.

"Like I said..."

"You're making a big fuss out of nothing, Elsa. The buns won't go bad in an hour. What, are you gonna toss them out if I don't eat them?"

"I'll heat them up again and eat them myself. It'll be alright."

"You don't even like Chinese steamed pork buns, Elsa."

"But I don't want to waste food..."

"So I'll eat them!"

Nothing Elsa said was going to stop her from taking a bite, so she sighed, "If you're going to eat one, take one of the ones in the middle. Those are probably still warm. I bought a dozen just so that I could insulate the ones in the middle."

So she intended to eat all the cold buns herself, leaving the warmer ones for Anna? Anna couldn't help but look affectionately at her driving girlfriend - as stupid as the idea sounded to her, it was a really sweet gesture. She couldn't stop smiling.

Anna took a bite, savouring the juicy meat and fluffy bun as they melt in her mouth. It was delicious!

When they stopped at the red light, Anna pulled Elsa's face over and landed a kiss on her.

"You taste that?" she asked after they parted.

"I don't like those pork buns."

"But these ones are delicious, aren't they?"

Elsa smiled, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

**End of Chapter 19**

_\- comments on your impressions, thoughts, suggestions are all welcome as always! The next update is scheduled for Jan 15. Have a happy holiday, my dear readers! Hope to see you again in the new year._


	20. Chapter 20

AN: Thanks for the kind comments of reviewers frankenjones, wannasalad, Master Kosa, Gcohen, sedryn, and MilandaAnza from the last chapter. Now that the manuscript arc is over, the last arc is finally going to take focus. I'm seeing the end draw near! It has been a long while since I've completed a story that isn't a one-shot, so I'm quite excited. I've made plans for five more chapters, so if everything goes well, the story will be finished this spring. Thanks for having stayed with me for so long! Just a reminder, this last arc will have some focus on religion and its relationship with homosexuality. The characters' views by no means reflect my personal views, nor do I want to use the characters to pass judgement on anybody's views. I do apologize that as an atheist (with very little Christian upbringing in my childhood), there is just so much research that I can do before writing this, so if I quoted things out of context due to my ignorance, please don't take it personally. I just wanted to convey different viewpoints that seem to me common in our current society, how they affect the characters' interactions with each other, and also how the characters are not just embodiments of such views - that regardless of conflicts, there are still things that do not change between them. Hope you'll like it!

PS - and thanks sedryn for some useful suggestions! I really appreciate it!

* * *

**Courtship of the Grad Student**

* * *

Chapter 20

Elsa's car pulled into Anna's driveway and she hopped out, followed by the blonde who was struggling with holding the towel and pork buns and trying to lock the car doors at the same time. Anna laughed and returned to Elsa, taking the buns from her hands before heading over to unlock the front door of her home.

"Go dry yourself in the washroom. You're totally soaking my pork..." Anna's voice trailed off the moment she opened the door to see who was sitting inside her basement suite, "...buns."

"Buns?" Elsa wondered what the heck was Anna talking about. She moved to the side of Anna so she could cross the doorway, only to be similarly shocked, grounded to where she stood.

"Are you not going to come in, Anna?" A stern, male voice spoke. It was Anna's father.

"Why are you here?" Anna asked, a little accusingly.

"Am I not allowed to visit the place I rent?"

True, her parents paid her rent. It wasn't for this reason, however, that she had given her parents keys. She wanted them to come down and visit her whenever they wished, and this was not the first time they surprised her like this. What she didn't expect, nor did she appreciate, was for them to waltz into her house and seemingly demand an explanation for what she hadn't done wrong.

"You're not here to visit, Dad. You are here because of Uncle Nik's wedding."

"It is not a wedding, Anna, but I am here to talk about it, yes."

"Then I have nothing to say," she answered, about to storm through the living room into her bedroom. Her mother stopped her by grabbing her wrist and gently easing her down to the sofa.

"Anna dear, let's just sit down first. Your father isn't meaning to reprimand you or anything," she said, turning towards Elsa, "And your friend is still standing there. Maybe you'd like to introduce us to her?"

Reminded that Elsa was still standing by the closed door, Anna reluctantly nodded. "Elsa, they are my parents, my dad Agnarr and my mom Iduna."

Before Anna could introduce her, Elsa took over and greeted the couple, "My name is Elsa Snow. I'm Anna's lab mentor and friend from the University of Arendelle. Nice to meet you."

Anna wanted to add on to what Elsa just said, but Elsa gave a very slight shake of head to stop her. Anna hesitantly swallowed her words. Elsa then stepped forward to shake Iduna's hand and Agnarr's. Though Agnarr did give her hand a solid shake out of politeness, it was clear his mind was elsewhere.

"Anna has told me a lot about you, Elsa. You don't mind me calling you by your name, do you?"

"It's quite alright, Mrs. Summers."

"Oh, Iduna is fine. Anna said that you've been helping her out a lot in the lab. I'm glad to hear that she has finally found a friend at university. You know, maybe we're just too nosy as parents, because Anna has had trouble making friends since she was a kid. She used to get so bored at home she'd bike around the halls, and there was this one time she crashed into our family's set of antique armour and broke off the gauntlet!"

"Fortunately, she has yet to break anything more expensive than a beaker at our lab," Elsa answered. This drew a laugh from Iduna, but Agnarr barely smiled. Understanding the situation, Elsa turned towards the kitchen, "I'm sure you and Mr. Summers are tired from your travels. Let me heat up some food for you. I just happen to have bought these delicious Chinese pork buns. I think you would like them."

"Thank you very much, Elsa. I really appreciate it," Iduna called after her. By then, Agnarr finally returned his gaze to Anna.

"I don't want to be saying this in front of your friend, but..."

"Dad. I said already. I'm not changing my mind about Uncle Nik. I support him."

"I know you love your uncle, but love doesn't mean to let him do as he pleases. Would you not turn in a murderer just because he's your relative?"

Anna felt anger flare up again, "A murderer? You're comparing Uncle Nik to a murderer? He just loves a man - how is that in any way comparable to murder!?"

"Anna," Iduna called her name softly, stroking her hand, "That's not what your father meant. You know this."

"I don't know what he means anymore..." Anna muttered.

"I mean that I love my brother as much, if not more, than you love him. I grew up with him, you didn't. But because I love him, I can't bear seeing him walk down the wrong path and forsake the salvation otherwise promised to us."

"Why do you have to take things so literally out of the Bible, Dad? That book is more than a thousand years old and has been edited who knows how many times to fit the political and personal agendas of whoever was in power at the time. How can you use that to condemn Uncle Nik? He's the kindest person I've ever known!"

"The Bible may be old but that doesn't diminish its value. As a Christian, you shall not cherry-pick whatever you want to hear and ignore what you do not agree with. The Lord is for you to follow, not for you to doubt."

"I never said I doubt God, I'm doubting the book written by humans, edited by humans, interpreted by humans! God is perfect, right? God is almighty, right? God loves us, right? Then why did God make gays if he hates gays?"

"It is a test, and I am trying my very best to help Nik pass this test. God did not create murderers for them to be murderers, or rapists for them to be rapists - God created them to be human, to have human desires, but they succumbed to those desires and became dictated by their evil. But so long as they repent, God is forgiving. They too can be saved. Don't you understand, Anna? I want Nik to be saved too. I don't want to see him descend into eternal hell!"

"You _will not_ compare Uncle Nik to a murderer or a rapist!" Anna shouted, so loud that Elsa almost dropped the pork buns she was taking out the microwave. There was a deafening silence as Anna glared into her father's serious eyes, Iduna looked down towards the ground in powerlessness, and Elsa just worriedly stared at Anna.

"You need to calm down and listen to what I say, Anna," Agnarr said, only to have Anna shake her head at him.

"No. You are the one who needs to take your head out of your holy book and start looking at the world around you, Dad."

Anna did not wait for him to answer, opening the front door and running out into the rain. Iduna called after her to no avail.

"I will keep an eye on Anna. If you need anything, please let me know," Elsa said to Iduna before she followed Anna outside.

It was still raining heavily outside, but the mood had lost its romantic feel. Anna's excitement that Elsa had come to pick her up from the symposium, her plans to celebrate Elsa's victory over Weselton...it all dissipated. It was after she ran a full block down the street that she even remembered she had just left Elsa at her house. Feeling guilty, she turned back, but her feet stopped, refusing her command. She really didn't want to return. Images from childhood came back to her, the moments her father held her up with his strong arms when she was just a child, from where she raised her hands to bat at falling snowflakes. The man she just faced was the same man she had always looked up to and depended on for protection. He was her idol, her shelter, her encyclopedia. Now, she lost it all. She knew what she had just said to her father wasn't wrong. It was unfair that she should feel even the faintest tinges of regret for saying them. But still, it didn't ease the clenching of her jaws, the furrow of her brows, the tears that threatened to fall. Why should she be the one to feel bad? He should be the one to apologize!

The rumble of engine and squeak of stopping tires caught Anna's attention. She turned towards the road where Elsa had just parked her car.

"Elsa?"

"So you were saying I was making your buns wet? What are you doing here getting yourself wet?"

Anna wanted to joke about it, say that she didn't have any buns with her now so it was okay, but those words wouldn't escape. She closed her eyes, hard, then uttered...

"I don't want to go home."

Elsa got out her car and drew Anna into her embrace. She fell limply into her arms.

"Don't be silly, Anna. Home is where your loved ones are, so...if you don't mind...I...I will be your home, okay?"

Anna hid her face into Elsa's chest, latching on, pulling close.

"Un...please take me home, Elsa."

* * *

The night had set in. Agnarr remained seated on the sofa while Iduna stood to take a call from the phone set on the cabinet.

"Alright. Thank you for taking care of her, Elsa. Please keep me updated. Goodbye."

With that, she ended the call and came over to Agnarr's side again, "Elsa just called. She said Anna is doing fine, just a little upset still. She'll be spending the night with her friends on campus."

"Her friends...I wonder if they are the ones teaching Anna these...abominations."

"Agnarr, please. You're making this more difficult than it needs to be."

"But what am I to think? My little girl has always been so good. She followed the Lord's words and had a kind heart."

"She still has a kind heart. That much I can see."

"Just showing her kindness in the wrong way." Agnarr was insistent, and Iduna felt it was useless to continue arguing with him. Still, Agnarr did not stop there, "She keeps getting hung up on my comparisons with Nikolas' sins and that of murderers and rapists without seeing the bigger message I'm trying to convey. A small sin, a large sin, is still a sin. Nikolas can only be forgiven if he repents. We all have sins and only repenting will save us. Why can't Anna see this? By attending Nikolas'...celebration of sin, she's doing nothing but encouraging him to continue down that path to condemnation!"

Iduna sighed, "That may be true, but you said already, Anna cannot see this, and the way you say it is not helping. _'Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.'_ The first line of Matthew 6.1. Saying that you are right and Anna is wrong repeatedly will not get you anywhere. Show her you love Nikolas as you say you do. Show her regardless of what sins Nikolas commits you will still forgive him and accept him. It's his wedding, for goodness' sake! It doesn't matter what we think of it, but clearly this is important for him. Why can't you just let Anna attend? Why shouldn't we attend?"

"So you're saying if he murders someone, I should go help him?"

"But he is not murdering someone. He is not hurting anyone. Even if he were a murderer, your obligation is just to stop the murder, not to kill the murderer. _'There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbour?'_ \- James 4:12. Nikolas and Anna know of the Bible, have read the Bible, have made up their minds about what they think of the Bible, and your judgement of them will not change this. They have their free will to practice whatever it is that they want; this is what God has given them, what God has planned for them. Our love for them should not stop because of our perception of their actions. Even if they were murderers, we should still love them, accept them, give to them. We cannot demand others to live a righteous life. We can only demand from ourselves."

"But they are my brother and daughter! I can't...I just can't watch them go on like this!"

Agnarr was a tough man. Though not overly tall or muscular, he still held an impressive stature. But now, Iduna knew he was close to tears. He held his face in his palms and his voice shook with emotions. Iduna could do nothing but hold him in her arms.

"I know. I know you are worried for them. Then let us pray for the Lord's forgiveness. We must have faith that He will make everything right again."

* * *

It had been two days since Anna started living at Elsa's dorm room.

Classes were out. It was time for final exams to begin. Anna had four exams scheduled for next week, and one the week after, but she had yet to start studying. It wasn't that she felt she was already prepared, or that she just wanted to procrastinate - the moment she sat down by herself to study, memories would flood her. Her father's distrust and disappointment were more than she could take, not just because she loved her Uncle Nik and couldn't help but feel angry at the way her father was treating him, but also that her father was indirectly reprimanding her relationship with Elsa. She had a hard enough time realizing her own feelings and expressing them to Elsa, finally to have her accept them, and now her family told her this was all wrong? She had anticipated that this would happen, but even so, it still hurt when it did.

"Anna, you sure you want to keep working? Even Kristoff has taken a break to study. Would you really be okay for your finals?" Elsa asked while Anna stacked yet another box of P1000 tips. Hardly anybody used these, and the twenty boxes they had on their shelf would probably last them a couple months. Then again, Elsa really didn't have anything else for Anna to do. The biohazard trash had been autoclaved, the experiments she had planned were all completed while they awaited new enzymes to arrive, even the bench was sparkling clean.

"I'll take a look at the summary section of the research grant you were working on," Anna said, sitting down by the computer to edit the document. Elsa just stared at her back, not knowing what to say. In the end, she could only relent.

"Alright. I'll buy lunch from across the street. We can eat together after I come back."

Anna almost wanted to jump out of her seat and follow Elsa, but thought that she probably shouldn't. Ever since the argument with her dad, she had been clinging onto Elsa - if she kept doing this, Elsa would probably suffocate. She didn't want to be such a high-maintenance girlfriend.

"Cool. I'll wait here," she said instead, turning back to the screen. Elsa forced herself to tear her concerned gaze off Anna and made her way downstairs.

The lab building was emptier with the undergrads off to study, but the campus itself was busier. Students came and went from the libraries, dorms, and restaurants, making Elsa somewhat uncomfortable the moment she came out the building to walk amongst them. She held her coat tighter to herself despite not being bothered by the cold at all, hiding the bottom half of her face within the high collar.

"Excuse me, are you Elsa?" she heard someone call from a nearby distance. She nearly jumped, but did manage to gather herself enough to shift her eyes towards the voice.

"Iduna!?" she called upon recognizing the woman. Iduna smiled.

"Sorry, I called the number you gave me, but nobody answered, so I thought I'd come by to see if I can catch you around the lab building."

"Oh, that's my dorm phone number, so that's probably why nobody answered. Is there something I can help you with?"

Iduna smiled, gesturing towards the coffee shop in the near distance, "If you don't mind, would you like to have a coffee with me? It's on me."

"I can use some caffeine, but I'll pay. Please don't worry about it."

The coffee shop was very crowded. It took them ten minutes to get their coffee, and despite waiting another ten minutes, they still couldn't find a spot to sit. The tables were all occupied with students studying for exams, textbooks, laptop and notes all lying there - it didn't seem like anybody had the intention of moving out of their seats.

"Maybe we can take a little stroll? I'm not sure if you mind the cold though," Elsa suggested.

"No, a stroll would be perfectly fine with me," Iduna answered.

Thus, they made their way across campus to the small garden overlooking the ocean. The garden was a popular lunch spot during the summer, but with flowers wilted and trees bare now, it looked a little miserable. However, this made the garden nice and quiet - perfect for their conversation.

"So what would you like to talk about, Iduna? Please, be frank with me. I do not mind," Elsa said.

"Then forgive me if I'm too forward about this. I was hoping you could ask Anna to come back home," Iduna said. She displayed no hostility, but it was clear that she saw something about Elsa that Agnarr hadn't. "I know you've been taking good care of our daughter and I really thank you for that. I want you to know that I'm not blaming you for Anna's behaviour. I just think that she might be more willing to listen to you than Agnarr and I, so..."

"I...it's not that I do not want to help you, Iduna, but I'm not sure if it's really right for me to tell Anna what to do in this case."

"Of course, I'm not expecting this to be a magic cure. I guess what I'm trying to say is...it would be great if you could tell Anna for us that we still really do love her. She does have a home to return to. We don't want her to feel like we're pushing her away."

Elsa was troubled. With Anna still so upset, she didn't want to bring up the issue in front of her. She also didn't feel like she had the right to do it. What position should she take? What would be best for Anna and how could she decide this?

"I will tell her what you said, but I think it might be better for you to tell her yourself. Afterall, I would think the words sound different coming from you or coming from me."

"I know. I will," Iduna answered. She took a seat on the stone bench and stared out into the waters far below the railing. "Anna has grown a lot, far faster than I thought she would. I should be happy, but as a parent, it's sometimes hard to let go. You know what I mean?"

"I can only imagine..." Elsa's voice trailed off, but there was more to say, it just took her a while to gather the words. The past months with Anna came to mind, her awkwardness, her determination, but also that subtle uncertainty about herself at first. She had grown. She now shone with a stronger light, and that shouldn't be something to be ashamed of. "But I think Anna's growth is a good thing. She is now more sure of herself than ever, and such confidence has enlightened those around her. I am proud to say she has supported me greatly. Though I may be her mentor, she was not the only one to learn from this process - I have benefitted greatly as well."

"I see," Iduna answered, smiling to Elsa's sincerity. To have someone care so much about Anna that she would speak out for her even from behind her back, Iduna felt relieved to know that.

Elsa was surprised when Iduna suddenly placed a hand on hers. She widened her eyes, only to feel Iduna's warmth flow seamlessly into her veins.

"Elsa."

"Yes?"

"I am very happy to see that Anna has you by her side."

Elsa didn't know what to say, or even how to feel about what was being said. Should she lie and clarify that there was nothing going on between Anna and her aside from student and mentor? Or would that just make it worse, seeing as Iduna didn't specify what she meant here. She just nodded slightly for lack of a better response, but Iduna didn't seem to mind her passivity.

"You see, Agnarr isn't a mean-spirited person. Stubborn, yes, but ultimately, he has Anna and her Uncle Nik's best interests at heart. He doesn't mean to hurt them."

"...I guess I can see that."

"What he has seen in life is not what Anna has seen, so naturally, as Anna gains experiences that are different from his, and thus formulate opinions that do not conform to his line of logic, he becomes frustrated that he can no longer understand her. He is worried that she is being influenced negatively, but that's not what I think is happening. Like you said, I think Anna is growing up, and that's a good thing.

But I can't easily convince him of this. His brother, Nikolas...you probably know already, but he's getting married with a man. Agnarr thinks it will lead him to hell. He thinks that the only way to save him is to change him. I know not everyone will think this way, but this is Agnarr we're talking about. He's terrified, really, because he doesn't want to lose those he loves in the eternal fire. Real or not, he believes in it. Anna may be right that he's foolish. But a fool will not recognize his own foolishness. Telling him that his worries are just nonsense isn't going to help him.

I...I know it's too much to ask of Anna and Nikolas to forgive him, but I don't have a choice. Someone has to take a step forward and make a compromise, and I've tried with Agnarr, but he wouldn't listen. Of course, I'm not saying that Nikolas should give up his love to please Agnarr, or for Anna to give up her support of Nikolas either. But is there any way to reach middle ground here? Maybe Anna can send Nikolas her blessings on paper, or by phone, or...just so Agnarr would not know about it? You see what I'm saying?"

Elsa was an intelligent person. Maybe she was not used to human interaction, but her power allowed her to understand them to a deeper extent than most. She knew Iduna wasn't lying when she said she was glad that Elsa was by Anna's side, but Elsa did take the hint that Iduna was not only referring to Nikolas' incident when she talked about hiding Anna's conflict with Agnarr from him.

It was not that Elsa couldn't understand Iduna's thinking. She sympathized with her plight, and honestly, she had no qualms even if Anna were to decide to go along with Agnarr on the surface so as to not anger him. But...

"Iduna, I will be honest. I understand your concerns, and I really do want Anna to reconcile with her father, but ultimately it's her decision. I cannot promise anything in her stead."

Iduna nodded, "Of course. Of course. What am I saying?"

Elsa could feel disappointment in Iduna's aura. She really wanted to help her, but this was not the way to do it.

Instead, she sandwiched Iduna's hand with her own. "Please don't worry too much. I think we can trust Anna and her father. They love each other, and that alone should eventually resolve any conflicts between them."

* * *

It was an hour later that Elsa would return to the lab.

"I bought sandwiches. They're outside in your cubby hole. You want to eat now?" Elsa asked Anna. She turned around wearily.

"Yeah. You took so long I nearly starved to death. I need to revitalize."

"Right, right. Sorry I took so long, Princess," Elsa said, bending down a little to offer Anna her hand. Anna took it and Elsa pulled her up from her seat, leading her out onto the hallway where they retrieved the sandwiches.

They went down to the lunch room to eat. Long after the usual lunch hours, the area was empty. They took a seat by the Christmas Tree.

"Did you hear about the _Decorate the Tree_ contest?" Anna broke the silence.

"So...sorry. What did you say?" Elsa wasn't paying attention. She had been thinking about her meeting with Iduna.

"Is something wrong, Elsa?"

Anna didn't ask why she was late, but Elsa really didn't want to hide anything from her either. After much contemplation, she finally spoke.

"I ran into your mother when I was getting lunch."

"What!? What did she say to you?" Anna grabbed onto Elsa's hand protectively. Elsa shook her head.

"Believe me, it's not something to worry about."

"What do you mean it's not something to worry about? Why did she come talk to you in the first place? About Uncle Nik? Or...does she know about us?"

"I think she knows, but she is not against it, which is why I'm saying it's not something to worry about."

Anna let go, sighing in relief. "Last thing I want is for her or my dad to start getting on our case. But Elsa, I swear, even if they say no, I won't change my mind about you. I won't let them hurt you, alright?"

"I know, Anna. I trust you."

Anna nodded, finally calming down a bit. She took a bite from her sandwich, but it tasted bland. Elsa rubbed a hand down her back.

"Easy now. I know things are hard for you, but you need to let it go sometimes."

"I don't know how. I mean, it's great knowing my mom is supportive, but Dad...I don't know how to face him."

"Your mom was saying that you need to know he loves you. He still does and always will. He just has some obstinate opinions..."

"It's not just an opinion when he's hurting someone with it!" Anna shouted, then looked down to the ground guiltily, "I didn't mean to raise my voice on you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I understand."

"I know you and Ma are just trying to help, and I thank you for that. But I can't just let my dad get away with hurting Uncle Nik, and me, like this! What right does he have to judge us? He says he loves us, but at the same time, he compares us to murderers and rapists. Murderers and rapists, Elsa! To him, my falling in love with you is like killing someone!"

Elsa reached forward to wrap her arms around Anna, letting her snuggle into her embrace.

"It's okay. Regardless of what he thinks, you and I know that our love is not like that. We're happy together. Our friends are happy for us. There is no reason to feel ashamed."

"I get it. I'm not ashamed either. But why does Pa have to be like this? While everybody else is happy for us, happy for Uncle Nik, he has to be such an asshole about it! I want to tell him about us, because I want all my family and friends to celebrate your presence in my life, but at the same time I'm scared. I don't know what kind of horrible things he'd say, not just to me, but to you too, Elsa. I don't want that. I just don't!"

"Then don't tell him. It's okay. I don't mind."

She hugged Anna tightly, but Anna struggled and pushed Elsa gently away. When they faced each other again, Anna faced Elsa's gaze head-on. Elsa tried to hide it, but there were hints of worry and hurt on her face. Anna clenched her teeth.

"Elsa, tell me what my mom actually said to you. Did she tell you to go away?"

"No, Anna. I said already, she is happy for us. She wouldn't say that."

"Then what did she say? Say it. Don't hide it from me."

"She didn't say anything, really, but I guess what she means is that we should probably keep our relationship away from your dad. You know how he reacted to your uncle's wedding. He's not going to take it well if we were to tell him about us."

Now Anna made a fist. Her knuckles became white. She could feel her teeth grind together, and whatever guilt and sadness she felt about her conflict with Agnarr disappeared to anger.

"You did not promise her."

"Of course I didn't! Anna, I know this is between you and your dad. I'm not going to butt my head into this without consulting you."

"Thank you," Anna said, then grabbing onto Elsa's face with both hands, pushed herself onto Elsa's lips.

Anna did not beg for entry. She just entered. Her tongue invaded every nook and cranny of Elsa's mouth, her gums, her teeth, her palate, the crevice beneath her tongue. Even from her sitting position, Elsa was being pushed against the wall beside her, forcing her to shift so that she could lean onto the hard surface with her back. Nearly robbed of her breath, she pushed weakly against Anna, but Anna just held her hands down to her lap, drawing a moan from her. When Anna finally moved away from her mouth, she was panting for air, but Anna wouldn't let her go, moving down to suck on her neck.

"Anna...not here...it's the lunch room for goodness' sake! Someone can come in here at any time...uuuun!"

The slight pain on her neck drew her attention. This was not the usual soft kiss, but a hard, possessive one. Only after hearing Elsa's cry did Anna let go, heaving as she stared at Elsa.

"Sorry. I...didn't mean to...did it hurt?"

"You're just going to leave a mark, that's all."

"Sorry. I should've asked first. I...I just wanted you to know, I'm not going to give in to my dad, or my mom for that matter. I have no intentions of hiding what we have between us. You are mine, and of course, I'm yours."

She was blushing at the embarrassing statement she just made. Elsa laughed.

"You're so silly."

"Oh come on, Els. Don't rub it in!"

"Fine, fine. I'll keep your feelings in my heart but forget the exact wording you just chose. Is that cool then?"

Anna nodded, holding onto Elsa's hand. "To prove my conviction, would you like to come with me to Uncle Nik's wedding? You know, as my significant other?"

"Just to prove your conviction?" Elsa teased.

"That and I'm sure you'd love Uncle Nik. I really want to introduce you to him and his husband. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is. I'd be happy to accept your invitation."

**End of Chapter 20**

_\- as usual, your comments, suggestions, and impressions are all welcome! The next update is tentatively scheduled for Feb 12._


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